WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Is this Navigation or a Menu? How should it work?

for

From: lynn.holdsworth@gmail.com
Date: May 10, 2018 7:27AM

Hi Steve,

If this widget has submenus pop up, to me that makes it a menu. From a personal perspective, I prefer that widgets like this behave like their desktop counterparts: only one focusable item at a time, reached by means of the arrow keys, with successive submenus closed by pressing the Esc key.

Cheers.

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Meacham, Steve - FSA, Kansas City, MO
Sent: 09 May 2018 15:00
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [WebAIM] Is this Navigation or a Menu? How should it work?

Live example of a top-navigation menu: http://usda-fsa.github.io/fsa-style/boilerplate.

The designers of this user interface rely upon default browser keyboard support only, which is TAB, SHIFT-TAB, SPACE, and ENTER. They do not support arrow keys or the escape key, as I would have expected as a keyboard-only user. I recommended following WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices 1.1 for Menus and Menu buttons, but the authors insist that those do not apply, because it is not a menu, but rather that it is "navigation." I don't get it.

First, I was unaware of what they described as an almost religious war about calling this a menu vs calling it navigation. Their claim is that the "navigation" side of this debate is winning or has essentially won.

Second, regardless of what we call it, it utilizes a hierarchy of unordered lists containing links, buttons, and headings. I find it tedious, at best, to use with only a keyboard, and impossible to understand and perceive non-visually using a screen reader. I cannot use JAWS to look at the headings on the page, links on the page, the buttons on the page, the lists on the page, or even the regions on the page, to find the choices available to me. The best I can do is realize that there is a Navigation region, use JAWS to jump to it, then navigate sequentially, item by item, pressing buttons when I find them, which unhide nested lists of more of the same.

Perhaps the worst thing is I have to remember all the steps I took to drill down to a given choice in order to understand it's context, such as what each "Overview" link is for.

But maybe I just have a bad attitude, or my cognitive deficit is due to Multiple Sclerosis, which isn't well-addressed by WCAG, and is just my problem and not a conformance problem. If you're willing and able, please take a look provide me with critical feedback (positive or negative) that I can use with the designers.

Steve Meacham, Digital Accessibility Program Manager USDA FSA and FPAC +1 (816) 926-1942<tel:+1-816-926-1942> For program support email <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >

Success should not be defined in terms of money, but by helping people to be independent individuals through inclusion.





This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.