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Re: Adobe InDesign to Accessible PDF discussion group

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From: Vincent Young
Date: Aug 25, 2011 10:51AM

Hi all,

I'd like to get some feedback on drop-down menus. I've been gathering some
examples of drop-down menus and there is quite a bit of variation. Here is
a basic synopsis of what I have found:

http://www.knowbility.org/ <http://www.knowbility.org/%20>;
- Their implementation seems to take from the AOL DHTML Style Guide (
http://dev.aol.com/dhtml_style_guide). In this implementation only the
first level menu items are TAB navigable. If a first level menus item has
focus, pressing the right/left arrow moves focus. Once focus is received
the sub-menu is exposed and this menus is navigated via the up/down arrow
keys.

http://www.blakehaswell.com/lab/dropdown/deux/
- All top-level and sub-menu items are TAB navigable. The sub-menu is
exposed and TAB navigable once it's top-level menu item receives focus.
Arrowing is disabled.

http://www.udm4.com/demos/horizontal-absolute-top-left.php
- Implementation is a blend of the prior two examples.

http://www.nomensa.com/
- Only the top level menu is TAB navigable. Sub-menu items are exposed on
subsequent pages.

It would be nice to hear from the keyboard user community to find out what
is preferred when it comes to drop-down menus. There is a lot of variation
out there and I'm wondering if this all becomes overwhelming and confusing.
Any usability study information on this matter would be very helpful. If
there has been a previous discussion on the topic, I'd appreciate being
pointed to the right direction.

Thanks.

Best,
Vincent

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