Re: indicating a context menu

Hi Stefan,

The problem is that you can't distinguish between a widget having a dropdown (such as a menubutton) or a context menu (which really could be any widget or element). For one, this could be a problem for a widget that has both. But even if aria-haspopup is used to only indicate a context menu, it's not very effective because the presence of a custom context menu is still likely to to go unnoticed by the screen reader user. Setting aria-haspopup will at best cause a screen reader to announce something like "submenu" or "pulldown", even though this is not a correct description for triggering a context menu. But there is no way for the screen reader to know whether the developer meant haspopup as in  dropdown or aria-haspopup as in context menu (which is why screen readers always announce it as a dropdown, if it announces it at all.

A web app developer might have implemented a custom DHTML context menu for a particular control to provide  widget or application specific options. Traditionally context menus are generated by the browser, and do not contain any useful options for the web application itself. Most screen reader users will not know they can try out Shift + F10 to find out relevant  options through the context menu. 

What we really need is an aria-hascontext attribute that indicates a custom context menu is provided by the application developer. The screen reader could then announce that with  something like "has context" or "context menu" (screen reader behavior should depend on verbosity settings in this case), making it clear to the user the menu can be opened with the appropriate shortcut.

Regards,

Hans Hillen


On Dec 13, 2010, at 6:16 PM, Schnabel, Stefan wrote:

> Hi Steve,
> 
> context menu: Shift+F10
> popup (menu): Alt + Arrow Down 
> 
> and your question is what to use when?
> 
> This seems to be not so clear for spec says
> 
> "aria-haspopup (property): Indicates that the element has a popup context menu or sub-level menu"
> 
> So the clash is that we have (in case of link elements) contradicting keyboard specs for invoking context menu, right?
> 
> Regards
> Stefan
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Faulkner [mailto:faulkner.steve@gmail.com] 
> Sent: Montag, 13. Dezember 2010 17:59
> To: Schnabel, Stefan
> Cc: W3C WAI-XTECH
> Subject: Re: indicating a context menu
> 
> Hi Stefan,
> 
> it being on a link is not the issue, what is is that there is no clear
> way to indicate that there is a context menu available as a against a
> popup menu each of which have different keyboard interactions
> associated with them.
> 
> best regards
> steve
> 
> On 13 December 2010 16:43, Schnabel, Stefan <stefan.schnabel@sap.com> wrote:
>> Steve,
>> 
>> Well, AFIK the context menu is a service by the User Agent for that particular HTML element,
>> shouldn't be this discussed between UA and AT?
>> 
>> UA should announce to the AT, that it has stuffed the link element with a context menu.
>> Maybe a clear case for some of the AIA members http://www.atia.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3752 to discuss..
>> 
>> Regards
>> Stefan
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Steve Faulkner [mailto:faulkner.steve@gmail.com]
>> Sent: Montag, 13. Dezember 2010 17:37
>> To: Schnabel, Stefan
>> Cc: W3C WAI-XTECH
>> Subject: Re: indicating a context menu
>> 
>> Hi Stefan,
>> what I have is a link that has a custom context menu.
>> 
>>> <a aria-haspopup="true">
>>> 
>>> Here, aria-haspopup is superfluous for every <A> has a context menu (invoked with Shift+F10 in e.g. IE and FF)
>> 
>> is it superfluous? as there is no indication via accessibility APIs
>> that a standard link has a context menu.
>> 
>> 
>> regards
>> stevef
>> 
>> On 13 December 2010 16:27, Schnabel, Stefan <stefan.schnabel@sap.com> wrote:
>>> Hi Steve,
>>> 
>>> do you mean
>>> 
>>> <span role="link">
>>> 
>>> Here, I suppose, we need
>>> 
>>> <span role="link" aria-haspopup="true">
>>> 
>>> To indicate a (custom) context menu ..
>>> 
>>> 
>>>>>> how does one let users know that they have tu use a particular keystroke
>>> 
>>> This could be e.g. an ARIA 2.0 extension, we call this "Tutor Messages". Could use an (to be invented) "aria-help" property for that or role extensibility.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Or do you mean
>>> 
>>> <a aria-haspopup="true">
>>> 
>>> Here, aria-haspopup is superfluous for every <A> has a context menu (invoked with Shift+F10 in e.g. IE and FF)
>>> 
>>> Regards
>>> Stefan
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: wai-xtech-request@w3.org [mailto:wai-xtech-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Steve Faulkner
>>> Sent: Montag, 13. Dezember 2010 15:20
>>> To: W3C WAI-XTECH
>>> Subject: indicating a context menu
>>> 
>>> What is the mest way to indicate the presence of a context menu on a
>>> link using ARIA?
>>> 
>>> aria-haspopup seems inadequate for the task.
>>> 
>>> how does one let users know that they have tu use a particular
>>> keystroke (http://dev.aol.com/dhtml_style_guide#popupmenu)
>>> 
>>> --
>>> with regards
>>> 
>>> Steve Faulkner
>>> Technical Director - TPG Europe
>>> Director - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium
>>> 
>>> www.paciellogroup.com | www.wat-c.org
>>> Web Accessibility Toolbar -
>>> http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> with regards
>> 
>> Steve Faulkner
>> Technical Director - TPG Europe
>> Director - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium
>> 
>> www.paciellogroup.com | www.wat-c.org
>> Web Accessibility Toolbar -
>> http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> with regards
> 
> Steve Faulkner
> Technical Director - TPG Europe
> Director - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium
> 
> www.paciellogroup.com | www.wat-c.org
> Web Accessibility Toolbar -
> http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html
>

Received on Monday, 13 December 2010 21:36:57 UTC