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RE: DHTML accessibility

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From: Moore, Michael
Date: Jul 6, 2006 12:50PM

Debbie wrote:

<blockquote>
I had a programmer send the following. I am not familiar with DHTML. Can
anyone advise as to how accessible it could be?

I'm considering whether to use DHTML generated drop down menus for
navigation. Are these considered "accessible"? Here's a product which
claims to produce accessible code:

http://www.udm4.com/menu/
thanks,
Debbie
</blockquote>

Debbie, last year I tested a couple of sites that used the UDM4 tool to
create accessible drop down menus and I was impressed by the results.
The menus worked fine using just the keyboard for operation and
functioned well when using JAWS.

One concern that I do have with the use of dynamic menus is for screen
magnifier users. It is very easy to accidentally trigger the menu and
cover content when using a screen magnifier (e.g. ZoomText). I
recommend providing a buffer area between the edge of the content and
the top level menu to improve things for those users. See James'
default horizontal example
http://www.udm4.com/demos/horizontal-absolute-top-left.php He leaves a
good amount of blank space between the navigation items and the start of
the content.

Mike