Are there any guidelines as to when links should open in a new window?

Question

Do the WCAG or W3C provide any guidelines regarding when hyperlinks should open in new windows?

Answer 1

It generally considered bad for accessibility to open links in new windows. These links explain a bit more about it:

• http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_16_not_opening_new_windows.html
• http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/new-browser-windows.shtml

Answer 2

There are no "standardized" guidelines, essentially it's a UI design decision. Usually when a link opens a new window, you are directing the user to another site, or you don't want the user leaving the current page, depending on process flow.

Really, with modern web capability, there are much better ways to handle UI in the browswer though than new windows.

Answer 3

Short Answer: No. Links should not be opened in new windows.

For the simple reason that users should be in control of how they open the links.

You can read this comprehensive article on the same.

Answer 4

The WCAG says "Make web pages appear and operate in consistent ways," and goes on to describe how a change of context should only be initiated by a user request or it should be easily disabled.

In HTML4 and in HTML5, the process by which a link opens in a new window is described, and in both cases user agents may suppress this if so configured by the user.

However, these are really descriptions of mechanism — when the browser should and shouldn't open a window — not policy.