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Re: mouseover/hover and keyboard accessible expandablemenu?

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From: Jason Megginson
Date: Nov 6, 2009 1:45PM

Hi Chuck,

In regards to the arrow keys, there may be no difficulty with navigating
this way as long as the menu items are inline with the parent link.

The example at HTML Dog provides a good example of this (sidebar: I also
like the list structure to denote hierarchy):
http://htmldog.com/articles/suckerfish/dropdowns/example/vertical.html

The child links are inline with the parent link in the source code in this
example. Screen readers like JAWS (virtual cursor) will read the content
in the order it appears in the source code.

When developers use CSS to display the sub-menu items, the content should
appear inline with the parent link(s). I have seen where developers place
the menu items at the end of the source code and position it visually in
the correct place. A user navigating with arrow keys will not be able to
identify the content because it is virtually at the end of the page.

I often recommend sighted testers to disable styles on the page (FireFox)
and inspect where the dynamic content appears. If the content appears
disjointed, that's how users in Virtual Cursor mode (JAWS) will access the
information.

Thanks
Jason

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of
<EMAIL REMOVED>
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 3:19 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] mouseover/hover and keyboard accessible
expandablemenu?

As a screen reader drop down menus are accessible with the use of the up
and
down arrow keys. There is no difficulty when this format is used.
Chuck
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jared Smith" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 9:49 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] mouseover/hover and keyboard accessible
expandablemenu?


> 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
>