Re: Opening a link in a new window...

At 15:14 -0700 on 04/21/2002, Thanasis Kinias wrote about Re: Opening 
a link in a new window...:

>scripsit Charles Walker:
>>  One more question: Validator doesn't allow the "target" attribute of
>>  an anchor tag in strict HTML 4.01; while not deprecated, it's
>>  considered "loose DTD", and is therefore unacceptable. 
>
>>  Therefore how, in Strict HTML 4.01, do you target a link to a new
>>  window?
>
>The short answer is:  you don't.
>
>The long answer is that targeting a link to open in a new window
>violates the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines [1], and (if you're in
>the United States or other country with comparable antidiscrimination
>legislation) is quite possibly illegal under federal civil rights law.
>Radical changes of focus in a GUI environment are extremely disorienting
>to blind users who are navigating by screen reader, and thus can be
>considered discrimination against the visually impaired.

So you are saying that if I have a Frames Web Site (with a Navigation 
Frame and a Contents frame), I get to choose what type of Crime I 
commit when I try to link to someone-else's site. I either violate 
the Section 508 Standards [WCAG/ ADA Law] by opening another window 
or I display the other site's content in my Frame thus committing a 
Copyright violation by appearing to claim it is my content. I'd 
rather just open a new window and [for the Blind Users], warn them in 
a <A ... TITLE="Opens A New Window" ...>. If their screen reader 
ignores the TITLE, I've done my part and it is their job to gripe 
about lack of TITLE support to the Screen Reader Software Publisher. 
Note that I am not against following the ADA Law, it is just that I 
feel that they have no right to scream discrimination if I have done 
my job by providing the info for their screen reader to read to them. 
I have a boss who is blind and thus uses JAWS so I am sensitive to 
the issue of creating sites that are accessible. I am just trying to 
balance two conflicting requirements - Section 508 Compliance and 
Copyright Law (as backed up by the Netizen Standards of opening other 
site's content in its own window not in one of my content Frames).
-- 
--

Bob Rosenberg
RockMUG Webmaster
Webmaster@RockMUG.org
www.RockMUG.org

Received on Friday, 26 April 2002 22:22:45 UTC