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Re: alternative to use of onChange in select menus

for

From: Gunderson, Jon R
Date: Jun 9, 2011 7:51AM

Other browsers like Firefox have a new problem with onChange event.

When you view the options using the up and down arrow keys of a select box and then "tab" out of the select box, this also seems to trigger the onchange event. So while you can view the options in a select box, you can't not select one of them.

Example:
http://html.cita.illinois.edu/nav/form/select/index.php?example=9

Jon



-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Steve Faulkner
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2011 8:25 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] alternative to use of onChange in select menus

also note that in browsers other than IE the navigation of the select options uisng the keyboard does not cause the onchange event to fire, the user having selected an option must press enter to activate the event.

--
with regards

Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG

www.paciellogroup.com |
www.HTML5accessibility.com<;http://www.html5accessibility.com/>;|
www.twitter.com/stevefaulkner
HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives - dev.w3.org/html5/alt-techniques/ Web Accessibility Toolbar - www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html



On 9 June 2011 13:48, < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Use of onChange on a dropdown menu is certainly not a best practice
> for accessibility, but it is not a drop dead barrier either. Screen
> reader and other keyboard users can use the dropdown if they open it
> with alt+down arrow, then move to their selection and tab out of the
> control. The problem occurs if they simply try to use the down arrow without opening the control.
> Some folks argue that these folks are simply not using their keyboards
> correctly.
>
> Michael Moore
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto:
> <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Angela French
> Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 5:47 PM
> To: 'WebAim Forum ( <EMAIL REMOVED> )'
> Subject: [WebAIM] alternative to use of onChange in select menus
>
> I am exploring options to reworking the functionality of the
> Quicklinks select (drop down) menu found in top of our global banner on this site:
> http://www.sbctc.edu/index.aspx . It relies on the JavaScript
> onChange event which makes it unusable to either screen readers or
> keyboard users (correct me please if I am wrong).
>
> Does anyone have an example URL they might direct me to of an
> alternative to this approach?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Angela French
> Internet Specialist
> State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
> 360-704-4316
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> http://www.checkoutacollege.com<;http://www.checkoutacollege.com/>;
>
>