[Bug 23970] add advice on use of menu roles for site nav links

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=23970

--- Comment #3 from dmacdona <david100@sympatico.ca> ---
strong disagreement from canadian government rep. email below.

======
It's just been brought to my attention the bug and discussion regarding
discouraging using role="menubar" for navigation sections:

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=23970

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2014Jan/0030.html

I've read them and I can't figure out why the W3C (saw you as part of the
discussion as well) is talking out pulling out the rug from beneath people who
have invested a lot of research and testing into this.

The old "top-level links are links" paradigm doesn't work across input methods.
We're now in a world where there is extensive touchscreen usage and a lot of
small and medium size screens so a lot of these old conventions don't work any
more.

For instance all this talk about top-level links in the menu bar. needing to
remain top-level links ignores the fact that is detrimental to touchscreen
users in such a menu system as it would prevent them from accessing the sub
menus (or create a scenario where some users can follow the links while others
can't which isn't good either).

Where is the hard evidence that the approach WET took is problematic and should
be discouraged? We're getting very positive testing results but it looks like
this is about Terrill having a change of heart so everyone should follow what
Terrill says because he knows better than the countless hours of research and
user testing the various groups have invested in menus for navigation.

Is there something I'm missing here? I don't see any valid justification in any
of the threads for such a ground shifting change (especially considering the
large number of implementations of WAI-ARIA menus for navigation)  short of a
bunch of opining and ivory tower arguments (and argument over what an action
is).

Just wanted to get a better idea of what is going on before deciding to wade
into this. Currently I'm not pleased with what I'm seeing and am rather
discouraged that such ground shifting decisions could be made with so little
consultation, so little evidence and seemingly so little user testing. This
seems to be so contrary to the open and extensive consultations that was done
for WCAG 2.0 ensuring there was community consensus (rather than doing
effectively a table drop on people that this affects most).

===========

so I've reversed the changes I made and would like further consultation with
other editors, and wai aria pf committee regarding next steps.

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Received on Sunday, 19 January 2014 00:53:10 UTC