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Re: Accessible accordion menus

for

From: Al Sparber
Date: Mar 8, 2009 12:10AM

From: "John Foliot" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >

> Nah, it's all good. 'Twas a 'full exchange' a week or three ago, but it's
> all good. To Al and Seth - peace!

And to you, too :-)

>> I think the reason the developer went with this accordion menu was
> because
>> the customer (my organization) wanted a less cluttered page. So the
> extra
>> info wouldn't be displayed until one of the main menu items was
> selected.
>> But I would think that there are so many other simpler ways of achieving
>> this. I'd almost rather see a separate HTML page for each section than
> a
>> huge script-heavy page that expands all its menus on that same page..
> That's
>> just my opinion as a user, but I may well be behind the times on that.

If that's so, the industry needs more people like you. You are not behind
the times, you are simply reacting in a logical manner to what you
rightfully perceive as visual glitter at the expense of accessibility. We do
things slowly and methodically and after my tirade on this list 2 years ago,
we did some homework. Here's what we discovered:

Most javascript authors either don't know what they are talking about or, if
they do, wind up deploying Rube Goldberg-esque solutions to simple problems.
Scripting keyboard support for a drop-down/flyout menu, for instance, that
is almost like native OS keyboard support is totally useless as users must
learn how it works before they can use it. The only solution at the present,
that makes any sense at all, is to kill the sub-menus and link the root
links to landing pages. Done correctly and efficiently it is not extra work
for the developer, but rather an incentive to structure a site in a friendly
manner so that it pulls users - all users - through.

ARIA is a ridiculous solution for client-side widgets (like accordions, tab
panels, scrollers, etc, that simply hide/show/animate content). ARIA can be
a good solution for Ajax that updates page content - but if it's not done in
the scope of a total accessibility schema, it is half-arsed at best and
worthless at worst - That is, if JavaScript-disabled users are not
considered it would be as if a Windows-based Web developer decided to block
content for all Mac users. The numbers could easily be that high.

When it comes to accessibility, the fault lies with the authors of assistive
software and with Web developers who go pedal-to-the-metal with open source
script libraries like JQuery, Prototype, and YUI without really considering
a realistic accessibility plan.

The infamous Target lawsuit was very nice, but to really bring about change,
lawsuits should be filed against Freedom Scientific, Yahoo, Google, and any
other large entity that has the juice to make the changes that really count.
I'm not an experienced Jaws user, but I'm probably no worse at it than a
fellow who has recently lost his vision and is trying like hell to get back
into the world. I'm a sports fan. I can't follow the things I'm accustomed
to following on ESPN or YahooSports. Much of it (almost all of it in the
case of ESPN) is inaccessible.

Fredom Scientific could easily cause a revolution in accessibility by simply
reading the content in pages from top-to-bottom with either total disregard
for style sheets or, better still, by supporting CSS media types.

The whole thing disgusts me. If I hear Suckerfish or UDM or Spry one more
time I could go postal :-)

In any event, we spent 1 hour this evening making a widget that we have in
development totally accessible for:

1. Jaws 10
2. Keyboard surfers
3. Javascript-disabled surfers

Here is the test page.

http://www.projectseven.com/accessibility-tests/accordions/index_all.htm

Now, I have no idea if this is going to work in Jaws 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 - but
it should and if it doesn't, Scientific American should be ashamed of
themselves and should provide free updates to its customers.

As a blindfolded Jaws user, what I like to hear is a page automatically read
from top to bottom, without my having to stop and press enter or stop and
press my arrow keys. It's not that difficult to do and it has nothing to do
with ARIA or Rube Goldberg scripting.

Sorry for the rant, but perhaps this will be helpful to someone.

--
Al Sparber - PVII
http://www.projectseven.com