Getting Started

Using the Menu ARIA Plugin is easy. Simply include the source file(s) for the ARIA plugin after the Menu source files as indicated on the Menu landing page. (Note: Since the Container Core file is a dependency of Menu, the Container ARIA Plugin is also a dependency of the Menu ARIA Plugin.)

<!-- Dependency --> <script type="text/javascript" src="../container/assets/containerariaplugin.js"></script> <!-- Source File --> <script type="text/javascript" src="assets/menuariaplugin.js"></script>

All YUI ARIA Plugins require the user's browser and AT support the WAI-ARIA Roles and States. Currently only Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 8 have support for ARIA, and are supported by several screen readers for Windows that also offer support for ARIA. For this reason the YUI ARIA Plugins are only enabled by default for these browsers. To enable the ARIA plugin for other browsers, simply the set the usearia configuration property to true. For example:

var oMenu = new YAHOO.widget.Menu("menu-1", { usearia: true });

Plugin Features

The labelledby and describedby configuration properties.

The Menu ARIA Plugin adds a labelledby and describedby configuration properties to the Menu class, each of which maps back to their respective ARIA property of aria-labelledby and aria-describedby. For example:

var oMenuBar = new YAHOO.widget.MenuBar("menubar-1", { labelledby: "menubar-label" });

Enhanced Keyboard Support

In keeping with the WAI-ARIA Best Practices for keyboard navigation the ARIA plugin for Menu enhances Menu's default behavior such that only one MenuItem is in the browser's tab index, enabling the user to easily tab into and out of the Menu. When a MenuItem in a Menu has focus, pressing the arrow keys moves focus between each MenuItem in the Menu.

ContextMenu Support

The Menu ARIA Plugin enhances the ContextMenu widget such that any element defined as a ContextMenu instance's trigger will have the aria-haspopup property automatically applied to let users of AT know that the element has a context menu associated with it.

Screen Reader Testing

Two of the leading screen readers for Windows, JAWS and Window-Eyes, support ARIA. Free, trial versions of both are available for download, but require Windows be restarted every 40 minutes. The open-source NVDA Screen Reader is the best option for developers as it is both free and provides excellent support for ARIA.