Keyboard plugin fails in IE when JAWS is enabled

[dopefish]

Hi, I’m evaluating SmartMenus for an application which must be accessible. With the keyboard plugin, SM looks and works great, except when I activate JAWS to assess screen reader feedback. Once JAWS is active, it’s as if the keyboard plugin has been completely disabled. Keyboard interaction reverts back to just tab/enter/space, no arrow key support. I see the same behavior on the official demo page as well, so I don’t think it has anything to do with my particular use: http://vadikom.github.io/smartmenus/src/demo/keyboard-navigation.html

I’m going to spend a little time trying to diagnose but wanted to see if anyone was using the keyboard plugin successfully with JAWS or had any thoughts on why it’s not working.

Win7, IE11, JAWS18.

Thanks!

[blobula]

I’m also running into the same issue and was hoping to get some feedback as to why this is occurring. Have you been able to find the issue?

[dopefish]

@blobula – yes, actually, I did get this resolved. In order to improve the JAWS experience, I make two changes to the DOM after SM has loaded: menu links (a) get role=menuitem and the list items (li) get role=presentation. I don’t remember offhand if both were required to fix this specific issue, or if one had been added for another reason.

I still have an issue where JAWS/IE double-announces some items, but it’s got nothing to do with SM specifically. Pretty sure that’s a known issue. Otherwise, the menu is working really well now!

I’d considered submitting a patch but just haven’t got that far…

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