508 compliancy and these menus

Poster: wpatters1229
Dated: Monday December 28 2009 - 20:56:37 GMT

Does anyone know if there is a way to make these menus compliant so a JAWS user can hear the menus or a person who can not use a mouse can use them? These are requirements for Federal usability so a blind person or disabled person can navigate a website. The other requirement is to be able to see the navigation after turning off javascript and CSS.

Anyone done a page with those requirements and these menus?

Appreciate the feedback

Re: 508 compliancy and these menus

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Monday December 28 2009 - 21:35:48 GMT

Hi,

In the download there is a modules folder. You would use the keypress.js file, putting it after the menu data file and that makes the menu tab accessible. If you go to the main site and use the tab you'll see it will tab you through the page including the menu.

As to the jaws readers. I would think that using the list-based menu might solve that problem. I am not really familiar with Jaws, but I believe they read lists, so I would think that building the menu from lists would allow those with screen readers to get the menu. Unfortunately, I have no way to test this, since I don't have or need a screen reader.

Ruth

Re: 508 compliancy and these menus

Poster: wpatters1229
Dated: Monday December 28 2009 - 22:22:39 GMT

Good info. Thanks. Firefox has a whole web dev plugin with JAWs reader and tester along with 508 compliance validation software...very nice for testing.
My other way to deal with turning off CSS is to make a text menu and have it controlled by the CSS to reside -200px to the left so it is really there but only shows up in text form when the CSS is gone.

Thanks for the feedback...now any way to wake up Andy to my non-profit status menu he is suppose to authorize?

Thanks

Re: 508 compliancy and these menus

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Monday December 28 2009 - 22:37:28 GMT

Hi,

Do you have where I can see that dev plugin?

As to the license, http://www.milonic.com/freelicreq.php have you done this? It tells how to apply for that. If you have you might contact them again. I know they have to visit the site for which the license is being requested.

Ruth

Re: 508 compliancy and these menus

Poster: wpatters1229
Dated: Monday December 28 2009 - 23:31:41 GMT

I did do the request and they answered and said I needed to have a link back to Milonic...I did along with a logo in the footer on all pages. Guess they are on holiday.

Here is the url where you can get that web developer toolbar...I love it. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60

Look under the tools drop down for the 508 validation. I use it all the time to see how others do things with CSS and other coding.

Re: 508 compliancy and these menus

Poster: wpatters1229
Dated: Tuesday January 12 2010 - 7:15:09 GMT

Is there anyone out there who might have a code example of how to show a list of navigation to emulate what is in the milonic menus that will only show up when either javascript is turned off or CSS is disabled. It would also fix the problem that search engine spiders run into in not seeing the links in the milonic menus. I have a site mapper tool that can't see any of the links described in the milonic data files.

Thanks

Re: 508 compliancy and these menus

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Monday January 18 2010 - 20:12:53 GMT

Hi,

Well, there are two options, you can put the menu, as a list menu, in noscript tags. Now, I have no idea if that also works for css being turned off. I would think that the css wouldn't affect the menu unless you are building it using css for all the coding, though I'm not sure since I don't do much css. Every tutorial I find goes from one thing to another with different pages and different layouts for each thing...confusing, you never get a real foundation building starting with one particular layout, colors etc. and keeping it but adding to it so you can grasp what is going on with regard to divs and div placement, absolute, relative positioning and so on....

Anyway, the second option would be to use a list menu to build the menu. The advantage to that is that with js on, the milonic menu is what shows, but with it off the listmenu shows up. It is automatic. I think I mentioned the listmenus before, they are in the modules folder of the menu download. That is the only way I know to do the js on/off thing. Both the listmenu and the noscript tags use the ul/li etc menus, and that is what most people do so that the search engines read the menus. It would seem with a combination of the listmenu module and the keypress module that Jaws readers would work and if the js is off then the list would be accessible for those users. Here is a page that has the listmenu for you to check out http://www.milonic.com/listbased/

Ruth

Re: 508 compliancy and these menus

Poster: wpatters1229
Dated: Monday April 26 2010 - 19:18:08 BST

I just added menus to my site using noscript tag and ul li but did not see any listmenu module out on the milonic site in the bolt on modules section. I put class=milonic in the ul of each listed menus but did not seem to make any difference. turning off CSS shows the text menus but turning off javascript did not do anything...the menus still work in the normal graphical view.
Can you tell me where the listmenu js file is located on the milonic site?

The page I did this too is http://www.fxtas.org/index_new.htm

I am testing ADA compliancy with a nice text only browser test site at http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html
You just need to follow the directions on the site.