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Re: Inaccessible mega menu and WCAG2

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From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: Jan 20, 2015 9:46AM

The www.mass.gov site has gone through a number of iterations of its mega menu, incorporating user feedback on each cycle. One version included a link to expand the menu on focus (i.e., "Expand Energy & Environment"), separate from the link to open the "category" page ("Energy & Environment'). The latest version is a bit more elegant, with thanks to Adobe from what we learned from their example.

One thing we observed is that keyboard-only users can have different views of how they are "supposed" to interact with application-like stuff on the web, especially when it comes to tab versus arrow keys. One of the nice things about the Adobe menu is that it works with both paradigms, so now the "customer" is always right.

As for Lynn's original question, the menu would seem to "fail" Principal 1 ("Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.") Who would think we would need a Guideline that content needs to be visible? Lacking that, I would cite 2.1.1 - If reading the menu items is a "function" and 2.4.7 - Visible focus

sb
Sarah E. Bourne
Director of IT Accessibility
Massachusetts Office of Information Technology
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.mass.gov/itd