WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: mouseover/hover and keyboard accessible expandablemenu?

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Nov 6, 2009 10:55AM

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 10:27 AM, < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> You build the stairs,
> and you build the elevator, and then you let the person who uses
> a wheelchair DECIDE how she wants to get upstairs.

Agreed, but it often does not work this way with web accessibility. A
web developer must make decisions and those decisions are usually
forced upon the site visitors. If you provide really bad alternative
text, it WILL be read by screen readers. If you try to make your
complex drop-down menu accessible, keyboard-only and screen reader
users WILL interact with your attempts at accessibility and will
likely have a frustrating experience.

I am curious though, how you typically interact with such menus using
only your keyboard. Have you found them to generally be accessible? If
so, how do they work? Any examples of good ones? Have you found a
universal convention to making them keyboard accessible? Do you think
they could be made accessible to someone that cannot see them?

Jared