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Tailslide -> RE: DHTML menu (10/23/2007 10:32:12)
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Generally speaking, no they're not very accessible. Quite often they're not keyboard navigable, god knows what a screen reader would make of them plus they can often disappear completely without JS on.
For single line vertical or horizontal menus it's best to use a styled list.
For dropdowns/Flyouts there are a couple of accessible possibilities - not always free.
The Accessible version of the old Son of Suckerfish is a plain CSS menu with a few hacks to make it work in IE6 and other old browsers. It's simple but it works quite well.
I've used a Javascript menu by Helix designs which is keyboard navigable plus with JS off it reverts to a CSS menu. It uses semantically correct code too which is a bonus. Only issue is in IE6 and under where with JS off you end up only able to use the top level menu items. To get around this I tend to include a list of the "child" pages on each top level page.
UDM4 is the most famous accessible dropdown system - unfortunately, not free though.
The lovely John Faulds has summarised the pros and cons of many of the most well known menus here: http://www.tyssendesign.com.au/articles/css/dropdown-low-down/
The questions to ask yourself when looking at a menu system is:
1. Can I move through the menu using the keyboard (tabbing on a PC)?
2. Are they "real" links (preferably in a list) and can screenreader read them?
3. If they use JS, what happens with JS off?
4. If they use fancy CSS, what happens with older browsers?
5. What happens with images off (if they use images) - are the links still visible?
The other thing to remember is that you don't need to necessarily exactly reproduce the same experience in all browser states (i.e. with JS off) for instance, you just need to ensure that the site works and is fairly simple to get around. So I'm not too bothered about presenting older browser users with a simpler version of a menu - as long as it works.
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