Re: SV: Color coding

I agree with Greg that pop-ups would drive most pople crazy.

Links should be self-explanatory. By default we expect any links to take us to another section of the current website, so it is only links that take us off the current site, or to non-html documents, that need special treatment. 

Ideally the link text itself should explain this. For example a link to "John Smith" should take me to a page on the current site about John Smith, whereas a link to "John Smith's Blog" would take me off the current site to his blog. Similarly a link to "Newsletter PDF" ( or better "Newsletter PDF  1.2MB") tells me exactly what to expect when I list the links on the page with my screenreader.

Colour coding is useless to a blind person and confusing to a sighted novice. Little icons (with alt tags) might help - so long as they are included in the actual link, but I am not sure that this works well for all screen readers. A little bit of extra care in wording link text is the best option all round as it helps everyone (including sighted users in a hurry) and improves search results.

Richard