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Reg dropdownbuttons and screen readers.

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From: Ramya Sethuraman
Date: Aug 17, 2012 3:21PM

Hi,

I have come across this issue several times in the past and thought I'd get
this clarified once and for all! The example I am looking at is the dijit
dropdownbutton: http://livedocs.dojotoolkit.org/dijit/form/DropDownButton

When I access the first example using just the keyboard and press enter on
the hello dropdown button, I am able to use my up and down arrow keys to
navigate through the menu items which is good. When I open the menu, focus
automatically lands on the first menuitem.

Now, when I test the same button on FF 14.0.1 and Jaws 13, I can press
enter to launch the dropdown menu but now I am unable to use my arrow keys
to navigate. I have to tab one more time for focus to land on the first
menuitem and at that point, I can use my up/down arrow keys to navigate.

Why is the behavior different when I use a screen reader? Is it because
Jaws is capturing the up/down arrow keys? Do I need to set an aria-role to
tell Jaws not to capture the up/down arrow keys? Thanks!

Ramya