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Thread: drop down lists

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From: James Bailey
Date: Mon, Mar 17 2008 11:10AM
Subject: drop down lists
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Has there been any improvement on drop down lists? The versions I am seeing force the keyboard user to tab through the entire list before moving to the next one. Seems like there should be a way to tab across the top buttons without launching the list. BTW I tried to search this on the archive and it said I did not have the correct permissions.

James

--
James Bailey
Adaptive Technology Access Adviser, University of Oregon
1299 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1299
Office: 541-346-1076
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From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Mon, Mar 17 2008 11:50AM
Subject: Re: drop down lists
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James Bailey wrote:

> Has there been any improvement on drop down lists?

It depends on how they have been implemented and what they are used for.
Generally, drop down lists remain an accessibility problem, but
sometimes they might be the least of evils.

> The versions I am
> seeing force the keyboard user to tab through the entire list before
> moving to the next one.

When a normal <select> element is used, tab normally takes you to the
next input item (or link), and you use arrow keys to move inside the
selection list. But then it won't often even appear as a drop down list
but as a scrollable box, which is sometimes better but often awkward for
a long list.

> Seems like there should be a way to tab
> across the top buttons without launching the list.

Which "top buttons"?

I have a _bad_ feeling about this... You mean _navigational_ drop down
lists? Just don't. Mm'kay? Use links, Luke. If this your problem is, the
following document read you must:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/navmenu.html

(Any "more advanced" drop down list techniques than forms and scripting
are most probably more advanced only in creating confusion.)


Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/