Elysa's observations are right for perhaps 99.995 percent of existing drop-down menus, but not for implementations that follow progressive enhancement principles. Because Martin and Nikolay are working on a brand-new implementation, my mind is open to the possibility that theirs could be done right.
For me and my users, accessibility is the first step toward usability. We can't guarantee accessibility for a menu system that relies on "event-handlers" including mouseover and onclick. If the user has disabled javascript, or is using a text-only browser or screen reader that overlooks javascript, there had better be a workable fallback. A robust menu system should respond to the mouse and to link-tabbing equally well; and with proper XHTML structure and tagging, search engines should easily catalog everything. It is possible. It just isn't done often enough (yet) to be widely recognized or adopted. A few years ago, I customized a simple two-level dropdown based on Gary Burton's EasyMenu (http://www.easymenu.co.uk/menubuilder/). It will work just as well with more levels, although that was all I needed. It's lightweight XHTML, semantically correct, searchable, degrades gracefully, functions well in every browser I've tested it with including Lynx, and screen readers navigate it without a hitch. So it can be done. Adding a behavioral layer to this with ASP.NET, ColdFusion, PHP or other server-side scripting would be the icing on the cake. Gary Burton made a commitment to functional simplicity that really pays off for our users who require full accessibility. I think it's an equal benefit to everyone else, and I'd love to see it extended. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=32933 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
