WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Inaccessible mega menu and WCAG2

for

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Jan 19, 2015 9:57AM

Sorry, I may not have been clear. Left/right move the focus left and right within the megamenu, which contains multiple columns of items.
AWK

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Lynn Holdsworth
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2015 11:26 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Inaccessible mega menu and WCAG2

Hi Andrew,

> 7) when a menu is open the user can move between menu items with tab
> or arrows, including left/right arrows

Just curious about the thinking behind using the left/right arrows to move up and down the items in a submenu. In native implementations the left/right arrow keys move the focus across the items in the menubar at the top.

Cheers, Lynn

On 19/01/2015, Andrew Kirkpatrick < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> So, the way that the mega menu
> (http://adobe-accessibility.github.io/Accessible-Mega-Menu/) was designed:
>
> 1) tabbing to the menu does not open the submenu, but focuses the
> first menu heading.
> 2) tabbing when the menu is closed moves the focus to the next menu
> heading (this was a heavily debated topic - the other option is to
> have one tab stop for the entire menu system when closed).
> 3) when focus is on a menu heading, hitting down arrow or enter will
> open the menu.
> 4) when focus is on a menu heading left and right arrows will move the
> focus between menu headings
> 5) when a menu is open, escape will always close the submenu
> 6) when the submenu is open and focus is on the menu heading, the
> example implementation takes the user to a page containing links to
> the submenu items when you click on that link. This can be easily modified.
> 7) when a menu is open the user can move between menu items with tab
> or arrows, including left/right arrows
> 8) to tab past the menu system the user either needs to tab through
> the menu options until they reach the end, or close the submenu that
> is open and tab past the smaller number of menu headings into the content).
>
> I do agree that even if the menus are in view that users don't need to
> be able to tab through all of the submenu links, but there does need
> to be a keyboard accessible way to access all of the submenu items.
> If a menu system is set up to enable arrow keys to access the items,
> then that should be fine.
>
> Our example is surely not the only way, nor is it perfect, and
> depending on the specific menu system needed for the content it may or
> may not meet the needs of the site. However, we put it on GitHub as
> an example for people to look at, discuss, learn from, and if they
> choose, to fork and use for their own purposes (in keeping with the terms of the license, etc, etc).
>
> AWK
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of _mallory
> Sent: Monday, January 19, 2015 2:40 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Inaccessible mega menu and WCAG2
>
> On Sun, Jan 18, 2015 at 04:02:59PM +0000, Andrew Kirkpatrick wrote:
>> The decision to not make the submenu appear on focus is deliberate
>> and is designed to same keyboard users the trouble of needing to tab
>> through many additional links.
>
> Showing submenus visibly on focus does *not* require the keyboarder to
> tab through all the submenu links, if the menu is built properly.
>
> The advantage of showing submenus on focus is, as the other reply has
> said, the user knows they exist. Having another separate functionality
> like a separate "activate" button as proposed earlier has the
> disadvantage that users never discover it, or get confused.
>
> _m
> > > list messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>
> > > list messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>
>