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Re: Success Criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships: what about inaccessible drop-down menus?

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From: Jim Byrne Accessible Web Design
Date: Aug 13, 2020 4:23AM

Thanks Steve, et al,

None of the elements or attributes you mention are used, so although the checkpoint does not appear to be principally design to indicate the type of failure that I have outlined (because this failure is caught by other checkpoints) - it does fail when matched against a literal reading of the checkpoint description. However, as others have pointed out, a lots of things would fail this checkpoint if it was taken so literally.

However it fails when tested against your explanation below.

Thanks,
Jim

> On 11 Aug 2020, at 15:42, Steve Green < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> Our usual interpretation of 1.3.1 is that if a series of links looks like it is a navigation item, it should be marked-up in a <nav> element with a unique "aria-label" attribute that describes its purpose, such as "main menu", "secondary navigation", "breadcrumb" etc.
>
> Furthermore, if the series of links look like a list (which they invariably do) they should be marked-up as a <ul> element.
>
> Dropdown menus usually look like nested lists, so that is how they should be marked-up.
>
> The visually expanded / collapsed state of the dropdowns need to be conveyed programmatically using the "aria-expanded" attribute.
>
> Depending on how the menu is constructed, there may be other visual aspects that need to be conveyed programmatically.
>
> If all these things are done, the structure of the menu and the relationship between the top-level link and the sub-links in the pull-down menu will survive when the menu is being accessed by a screen reader.
>
> Without seeing the code I can't say which WCAG success criteria your menu doesn't conform with. However, if the menu is not keyboard accessible, it is likely that other success criteria are non-conformant. It may or may not be conformant with 1.3.1.
>
> Steve Green
> Managing Director
> Test Partners Ltd
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Jim Byrne Accessible Web Design
> Sent: 11 August 2020 15:07
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: [WebAIM] Success Criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships: what about inaccessible drop-down menus?
>
> Hi,
>
> Just wondering what your thoughts are on this:
>
> Re: Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships
>
> This success criteria is about ensuring that, 'information and relationships that are implied by visual or auditory formatting are preserved when the presentation format changes.'
>
> So would a drop-down menu that is inaccessible to screen readers (and keyboards users) mean this checkpoint fails?
>
> There's no indication that the checkpoint is designed to include this kind of issue, as it refers to tables, colour, forms with required fields - and the robustness of these - to different presentation.
>
> Clearly the structure of the menu and the relationship between the the top-level link and the sub-links in the pull-down menu does not survive - when the menu is being access by a screen reader. So it should be a fail?
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Sorry if I'm missing something here.
>
> Thanks,
> Jim
>
>
>
>
> > > > > > > About Jim Byrne
With over two decades of experience Jim Byrne is one of the UK's most experienced practitioners in the area of accessible web design. Jim provided feedback during the development of WCAG 2 as part of the Guild of Accessible Website Designers. He is the author of a number of technical books, training courses and accessibility guides. Jim was a winner of the equal access category of the Global Bangemann Challenge.

Jim Byrne: Specialist in Accessible Website Design.

Web: http://www.jimbyrne.co.uk

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