RE: Call for feedback on accessible DHTML menus

Yes, you are right.  As I just emailed Tom, I'm so used to seeing this type
of implementation which doesn't work when scripts are turned on.  It's great
to see implementations that give developers the choice to implement
something like this and it still address accessibility and usability issues.
Great.

Geoff

-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Featherstone

Geoff wrote:
> That is true, but if you turn scripts off, in this case it renders the
menus
> unfunctional and therefore inaccessible in every sense.

Right the menus themselves don't function with scripting off. However...

Geoff also quoted:
> http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT-TECHS/#tech-scripts
>
> 6.3 Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other
> programmatic objects are turned off orot supported. If this is not
> possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative
> accessible page.
> [Priority 1]

Exactly. "Ensure that pages are usable when scripts are turned off or not
supported."

So when scripts off, are the menus (or better yet, what is left of the
menus) usable? Yes, they are... In most of these menu systems, the top level
link is created to point to a page that contains links for all  of the items
that *would have shown* in the menu if scripts were on.

As an example -- http://www.crossborder-management.com

View it with scripting on. View it with scripting off.

Either way, you can still get to all of the information. The links that are
provided in the DHTML menus, are redundantly provided on the main content
pages.

Lets leave the obvious usability debate out of it...

> But don't kid yourself that it meets WCAG1 requirements.  There
> are very good reasons for WCAG1 checkpoint 6.3

Actually, I'd say it is working exactly within WCAG checkpoint 6.3

Best regards,
Derek.
--
Derek Featherstone  feather@wats.ca
Web Accessibility Specialist / Co-founder of WATS.ca
Web Accessibility Testing and Services
http://www.wats.ca   1.866.932.4878 (North America)

Received on Tuesday, 23 September 2003 18:32:28 UTC