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Re: on mouse over

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From: Steve Green
Date: Mar 20, 2013 6:04AM

If JAWS says "onMouseover", it means that the link has a JavaScript onMouseover event handler, which means that an event is triggered when the mouse is hovered over the link. Sometimes that hover event is the only thing that happens, such as a CSS Help overlay being displayed. Sometimes the hover event is in addition to the link being clickable. In the latter case the onMouseover event might just be a change in the colour of the link but it could also trigger a dropdown menu or something else.

As such, there is no one 'right' way to code onMouseover links. They are actually an old way of implementing this functionality and there are better methods that use DOM scripting.

Are you aware that JAWS can trigger onMouseover events by using Ctrl + Insert + Enter? The behaviour depends on the JAWS version and has changed quite a lot over the years. It does not always work but it does most of the time. However, it may be difficult for you to work out what has happened if the change is purely visual, such as a dropdown menu opening.

I have recently seen a couple of websites where it was necessary to press Ctrl + Insert + Enter to trigger the onMouseover event and then press the Enter key to trigger the link. However, I only found that out by experimentation and will not always work.

Steve Green