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Re: What's the point of aria-expanded on a menu button?

for

From: Jon Gunderson
Date: Nov 20, 2023 10:53AM

There is currently an open issue related to `aria-expanded` in the ARIA
APG, to also require it to be set to `false` when the menu is closed. It
would be a good place to raise the question of usefulness, so iit's purpose
could be more fully explained. The APG pays attention to external comments
that are raised in issues, so I encourage you to comment.

[Issue #2834: Revise menu button examples to declare aria-expanded="false"
when collapsed](https://github.com/w3c/aria-practices/issues/2834)


On Wed, Nov 15, 2023 at 8:15 PM Bryan Garaventa <
<EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hi,
> Typically it's not that useful to have aria-expanded on a standalone menu
> button, but it is, however, very useful on a menu item within a menu.
>
> The value isn't necessarily with keyboard navigable screen readers like
> JAWS and NVDA, but rather with touch-based screen readers like VoiceOver on
> iOS. You can try this out here:
> https://whatsock.com/Templates/Menus/Internal/index.htm
>
> The expanded state is announced so that the submenu list hierarchy is
> clear during touch navigation.
>
> All the best,
> Bryan
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of
> Patrick H. Lauke
> Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2023 10:10 AM
> To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] What's the point of aria-expanded on a menu button?
>
>
>
> On 15/11/2023 17:13, Jonathan Michael Bodnar via WebAIM-Forum wrote:
> > From a component design perspective the button to toggle the menu would
> be external to the collapsible region of the menu, or external to the menu,
> and reachable regardless of the menu state. The aria-expanded attribute
> indicates the state of the menu the button controls.
>
> But a proper menu sets focus to the first menu item when the menu is
> opened, and if you try to tab/move out of the menu, the menu is closed
> again. So you don't normally encounter the menu button itself while the
> menu is also opened. Which is why it's, in practice, redundant (unless
> you're doing something unusual and *don't* autoclose the menu when moving
> out of it, which sounds...odd; or if you're actually opening something that
> isn't a menu as such, but more like a disclosure widget?)
>
> P
> --
> Patrick H. Lauke
>
> https://www.splintered.co.uk/ | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
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>
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> >
> > > > >