Spider Trax

More On Popups

WAI Checkpoint 10.1 states:

Until user agents allow users to turn off spawned windows, do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear and do not change the current window without informing the user.

Yes, we all know about this one. Don’t spawn a new window unless you really have to and, if you feel compelled to do so, inform the user. For many developers, this boils down to using the title attribute within the link markup to inform the user that the link will open in a new window. The idea behind this is that screen reader users will be forewarned about the upcoming change of focus by their own software.

For a start, anecdotal evidence suggests that many screen reader users configure their software to ignore the title attribute.

Why?

Because designers with the habit of throwing title attributes into just about every markup element end up drowning out the “signal” off their content with unnecessary, repetitious, “noise” within screen readers. So, just because screen readers can access the title attribute, doesn’t mean that screen reader users will access it.

But what about all the keyboard navigators who don’t use screen readers?

As a mouse user, if you hover over a link with a title attribute attached to it in, say, Firefox, the information contained within the title attribute will obligingly appear as a pop-up/tooltip.

(Yes – I know that IE doesn’t play ball here. Can I help it if people persist in using a broken browser)?

If, however, you are using keyboard to navigate through a web page in the same browser, you’re out of luck. Applying focus to a link via the Tab key does not trigger the appearance of the title attribute pop-up, so the sudden creation of the new window may come as something of a surprise. And, as I’ve already mentioned elsewhere, the last thing that a VR software user needs is yet more unannounced windows to contend with.

So it would appear that using the title attribute to issue a “new window” warning isn’t enough. It will be better if there was some visual indication on the page in addition to the title attribute information. Ideally, the “new window” warning should be placed in clear view on the page itself and not hidden within markup. However, it is understandable that some site owners do not like their pages being cluttered in this manner, so perhaps there needs to be a compromise.

WAI Checkpoint 2.1 warns against conveying information using colour alone, but I don’t see any problem with using colour, or any other purely presentational styling, to supplement markup. Perhaps it might be an idea to supplement usage of the title attribute with visual cues – such as a different colour or bolder text – to warn that a link will open in a new window?

Whilst this does not address the issue of screen readers configured to ignore the title attribute, it does, at least, go some way to warning visually unimpaired keyboard navigators.