[Bug 13623] New: Allow more flexible presentation of menus

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=13623

           Summary: Allow more flexible presentation of menus
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Keywords: a11y, a11ytf
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML5 spec (editor: Ian Hickson)
        AssignedTo: ian@hixie.ch
        ReportedBy: gcl-0039@access-research.org
         QAContact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-html-wg-issue-tracking@w3.org,
                    public-html@w3.org, public-html-a11y@w3.org
        Depends on: 13621


The description of how user agent must handle the menu element and its contents
might be overly prescriptive. For example, the current HTML5 draft
specification clearly spells out when user agents should render groups of menu
items inline vs. as a submenu, seemingly giving the user agent no leeway to
adjust for user preference. Instead, it should acknowledge that user agents may
override the default presentation described in order to comply with user
preferences.

Use case: Nadia is blind and using a web browser with a screen reader. The
document contains a menu structure created with the HTML5 menu element, and it
includes some very long menus with many groups of menu items separated by
horizontal rules into various groups or sections. As Nadia uses the down arrow
key to navigate through the menu items, she has to pause for each one to be
read to her, so traversing a long menu takes a long time and a lot of effort.
She would prefer to have the menu presented to her in hierarchical fashion that
uses progressive disclosure, so she could navigate through the short list of
sections, and then through the short list of commands in the desired section,
rather than through one long list of items.

Use case: Aidan is the opposite of Nadia. He uses an alternative input system
and input is difficult for him, so he wants to reduce the number of actions he
has to take. Therefore he prefers to see all the options visible at once so
that he can choose one directly, rather than having to use mechanisms involving
progressive disclosure. (He has even invested in a large, high-resolution
monitor to support this work style.) Rather than choosing a sub-menu and then
items from them, he'd rather have all the sub-menus and their items displayed
together. Unfortunately, the HTML5 specification explicitly states that the
menu element with a label must be presented as a sub-menu rather than displayed
inline.

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Received on Wednesday, 3 August 2011 19:34:24 UTC