[Accessibility_sig] Drop down menus

[Bryan Robison]

I'm surprised I'm the first person to ask this, but do you really need a
drop down menu? Personally, I don't find them necessary. I say save
yourself the trouble and forget it, unless you have some marketing type
breathing down your neck telling you the site must have it because
people won't be able to find anything. Been there. That's what Google is
for.

There's plenty of sites out there with tons of content (NY Times, BBC,
CNN, etc.) that don't rely on drop-down or fly-out menus.

If you do implement one, make sure that there's a setTimeout() function
used on the onMouseOut event so that people with motor disabilities, low
vision or poor hand-eye coordination have enough time to select an
option if they accidentally move the mouse out of the area before
clicking. I sometimes use an old G3 iBook that has a worn out trackpad
which causes problems with drop-down menus because the trackpad isn't
very accurate.

Just my $.02,
-bryan



Bryan Robison | Senior Applications Developer
GSD&M | 828 West 6th St. | Austin, TX 78703
512 242 4481 | fax 512 242 7481


-----Original Message-----
From: accessibility_sig-bounces at knowbility.org
[mailto:accessibility_sig-bounces at knowbility.org] On Behalf Of Bianca
Taulman
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 2:52 PM
To: Discussion list for web and software accessibility issues
Subject: [Accessibility_sig] Drop down menus

Hi all,

What type of drop down menu (JS, DHTML, etc.) is accessible, if any at
all? Since they are all on mouse over events I don't see how they are
accessible but am willing to learn.


Thanks,

Bianca


:::::::::::::::::::::::
LIVESTRONGTM
:::::::::::::::::::::::

Bianca Taulman
Information Services Developer
Lance Armstrong Foundation
p 512.279.8359
f 512.236.8482
www.livestrong.org




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