What on earth are interim solutions

[tarunkrsna]

Hi all....

I've been trying to get my front page to be 100% accessible and I have suceeded (well that was yesterday; see: http://www.sevamrta.com/tafe/tweedwebdesign/rapport.htm )
.. today I checked it and :confused:

http://www.ocawa.com/autotest/validate.php

says that because I have links that use target="_blank" attribute, I should use interim solutions to inform visitors that the links open in a new page.

Well, I tried putting a message after the link stating that the link opened in a new page .. that didn't work.

I looked through some of the accessibility study guides on Webdeveloper.com but there's lots of goodies there but couldn't find what I needed.

Does anyone know how to make this error a non-event? Everything else works. W3C OK for XHTML and CSS. Page looks fine in Lynx. Just this Ocawa accessibility tester is pretty finniky (and rightly so I guess, I never thought of problems that people might have by being sent to a new browser page unannounced).

It's important to me to get this page 100% perfect. I want to make all my pages 100% accessible plus this one's part of a college course on accessibility.

http://www.sevamrta.com/tafe/tweedwebdesign/index.html

Thanks

t3rry

[kiwibrit]

Looks like your validator doesn't like new windows from links - period. And there is rarely an excuse for it.

I see you are using transitional code - if you had been using strict code, that would have highlighted the problem to you earlier. If you need to produce a site that will open links in new windows, yet be valid in strict code, then I suggest you use javascript to do it, but leave the target="_blank" out. Strictly, you will also need to think about browsers with javascript enabled seeing the warning about new windows, but not for those without javascript. Messy. Best avoid new windows if you can.

[bathurst_guy]

You should just provide links as links and leave the target attribute out completely. If the end user actually wants to open it in a new window then they are suppost to right click on it and select to do so.

[tarunkrsna]

Thanks guys
Sad news I guess, but what can be done? Decisions decisions!

Small world!
I was born in South Bathurst. Keppel St if my memory serves me well. Long time ago. No contact with anyone there now.

cheeeeeeeers
t3rry

[Robert Wellock]

The only option is to use unobtrusive JavaScript if you still want the windows to popup.

Also the page is far from very accessible you have to learn not to relay upon idiot robots that giver false reports and you've overused <dl> and not really made best use of semantics.

[felgall]

Opening a new window is behaviour not content and that is why the target attribute is deprecated. All HTML tags and attributes not connected to defining content are deprecated as you should be using the appropriate language for the various parts of the page.

HTML = content
CSS = Appearance
Javascript = Behaviour

[tarunkrsna]

Guilty on both counts. Mea culpa mea culpa...

Thanks Robert and Felgall for the direction. Fortunately this is only a college assignement and highly unlikely to ever be used by the general public, BUT, as herinbefore stated, I want to set my entire site to be accessible, all 70+ pages, and then there's dezigndevil.com and the my upcoming webdesign site, so thanks again, as every pointer to the ultimate perfection of web design is valuable info. I doubt that I'll have time to change the <dl>s in this instance, still your point is well noted Robert, but I should remove the target attribute asap.
cheeeeeeeers.t3rry();