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Re: Announcing sub menu levels

for

From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Nov 4, 2019 6:57AM

This is one of those many situations where I think observing screen reader
users experiencing the issue would provide insightful details for resolving
the issues--the type of details you don't get from having the user describe
the problem and solution or just reading a summary of the problem. IF you
are looking to create an optimal accessible solution those are the types of
details you need to create such a solution.

Here are a couple of thoughts on the discussion for whatever they might be
worth.

In native mobile apps (such as on Windows and Mac), menus do not provide
level information and they seem to work for screen reader users. On the
web, we (experts) seem to think the nesting level is essential for menus to
be accessible. Why is that? What seems to make nesting levels essential
for menus on the web? I am not insinuating that one is right and the other
is wrong. However, it is notable that minimal requirements and perceptions
of what confuses users differ between platforms.

My other thought is on the type of information conveyed by the aproaches.
When a user hears that an item is nesting level 3, they know that this menu
item has a parent and grandparent. IN Birkir's approach, the user knows
that the current menu "Cow" has a parent named "Herbivore" and a grandparent
named "Domesticated". Depending on the nature of the confusion one or both
approaches might help the user.

Thanks,
Tim
Tim Harshbarger
Senior Accessibility Consultant
Deque Systems