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Re: Accessible Mega Menu and Safari

for

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Mar 31, 2016 7:50AM

Regarding support with VoiceOver on the Mac, I ran a test with chrome and VoiceOver and the mega menu did not auto collapse. I then went to my event testing page (https://labs.ssbbartgroup.com/index.php/Event_Watcher) and used the control+option+left arrow keys to move around several different types of controls to see what might be causing the issue. I find that with VoiceOver in Safari an extra blur event is being fired between focus events -- that is when some elements are focused with control+option+left arrow a focus event followed by a blur event followed by a focus event all on the same element are fired. This is not the case when tab is pressed. This seems like a bug.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
<EMAIL REMOVED>
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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Robert Fentress
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 12:37 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessible Mega Menu and Safari

Thanks, Paul.

The problem with using down arrow with QuickNav off or Tab, in this instance, is that this only moves between links and skips over non-focusable elements. The purpose of the mega menu pattern, as used here, is that you want to make other structured content besides the menu links available, for instance, headings or textual cues. That content is skipped using these navigation methods, at least, apparently, with how I have VoiceOver set up.

As to the ARIA Authoring Practices, while those are valuable, if your are doing something application-like, if you are using menus in the way commonly found on web pages, you would likely violate many users expectations by following the spec. As others have noted, web applications--not to mention regular web sites that make sporadic use of custom controls--are not the same as desktop applications. That being said, mapping to system APIs does provide value. It is a difficult nut to crack.

On Wed, Mar 30, 2016 at 11:47 AM, Paul J. Adam < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Looks like it only works if you press the down arrow key with VoiceOver quick navigation turned off. Or Tab into the menu.
>
> It would be smart for JavaScript widgets that have various keyboard navigation methods to display a visible tooltip or show some instructions on how to actually operate the menu. Those instructions being accessible to screen reader users also.
>
> This menu works as you're expecting with VO+Right Arrow key.
> http://www.washington.edu/accesscomputing/AU/after.html
> <http://www.washington.edu/accesscomputing/AU/after.html>;
>
> Here's the ARIA Authoring Practices with keyboard interaction
> instructions, https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/#menu
> <https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/#menu>
>
> Paul J. Adam
> Accessibility Evangelist
> www.deque.com
>
>> On Mar 30, 2016, at 10:18 AM, Robert Fentress < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>>
>> Hi, all.
>>
>> I've just noticed a problem with the way Adobe's Accessible Mega Menu
>> (
>> https://adobe-accessibility.github.io/Accessible-Mega-Menu/) works
>> with Safari and VoiceOver. Basically, when you activate a menu with
>> Control+Option+Space the menu appears, but when you then press Right
>> Control+Option+Arrow to have VO voice the text in the menu, the menu
>> collapses. It only stays open if you tab into the revealed contents.
>> This, of course, kinda defeats one of the points of this pattern, in
>> that it means that you really only have access to the menu options,
>> not the other structured content. In that case, you might as well
>> just make it a more standard menu.
>>
>> I could have sworn I'd tested this before and it had worked. Do you
>> know if anything has changed in recent updates to Safari or VoiceOver
>> that would have affected this, or did I just miss it previously?
>>
>> On a related note, if you are stuck with this basic turducken mega
>> menu pattern, is there an implementation that works better than
>> Adobe's? If I could convince the people I'm making recommendations
>> to to deviate slightly from the strict mega menu pattern, would a
>> mega modal be better and, if so, do you know of some particularly good implementations?
>>
>> Best,
>> Rob
>>
>> --
>> Robert Fentress
>> Senior Accessibility Solutions Designer
>> 540.231.1255
>>
>> Technology-enhanced Learning & Online Strategies Assistive
>> Technologies
>> 1180 Torgersen Hall
>> 620 Drillfield Drive (0434)
>> Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
>> >> >> archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
>> >
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> --
Robert Fentress
Senior Accessibility Solutions Designer
540.231.1255

Technology-enhanced Learning & Online Strategies Assistive Technologies
1180 Torgersen Hall
620 Drillfield Drive (0434)
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061