Accessible .net fly-out navigation control?

[darrel]

I'm not a big fan of fly-out navigation, but I have a need for it on an
internal application we're developing.

Before I build my own, I thought I'd see what I could find. I found a lot of
..net fly-out nav controls, but all of them are built rather poorly in terms
of accessibility. So, I was wondering if anyone has found a control that:

- doesn't require javascript to navigate (ie, it degrades nicely)
- takes advantage of CSS
- populates itself from an XML file
- allows for keyboard navigation
- offers a 'timed' delay before closing the sub-menus to
allow a person to navigate diagonally from the parent
item, to the child item without causing the menu
to disappear.

If I can find part or all of the above, that would give me a head start. If
not, I think I will try and cobble together something from bits and pieces.
SKMmenu looks like a good start in that regard.

-Darrel

 

[darrel]

SKMmenu looks like a good start

I take that back. SKM menu is poorly built as well.

-Darrel

 

[clintonG]

So what have you done with the Menu control provided with 2.0? Does it not
emit HTML that can be considered accessible?


<%= Clinton Gallagher
METROmilwaukee (sm) "A Regional Information Service"
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://metromilwaukee.com/
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/

 

[darrel]

So what have you done with the Menu control provided with 2.0? Does it not

emit HTML that can be considered accessible?

2.0? ASP.net 2.0? If so, we're not using ASP.net 2.0

Do you know of any examples of the menu control in 2.0 out there on the web
I could take a look at?

-Darrel

 

[darrel]

So what have you done with the Menu control provided with 2.0? Does it not

emit HTML that can be considered accessible?

Hmm...if this is an example:

http://dotnetjunkies.com/QuickStartv20/aspnet/samples/ctrlref/navigation/Menu/MenuStyles_cs.aspx

then I'd say that's not very promising. The markup for this is just awful.
Nested Tables, inline script calls...

I'm looking for a control (or, at this point, now just a javascript) that
can play off of a nice semantic nested list for the navigation and then
apply all the scripting after pageload, as opposed to having it inline with
the HTML.

-Darrel

 

[clintonG]

You should use the ASP.NETbeta 2 QuickStarts [1] to learn more about what is
possible. Visual Studio 2005 emits section508 compliant source although I
have yet to run any through Bobby or any other validating process. I think
you can also get some insight by reading this three part series of articles
[2] about accessibility in ASP.NET 2.0.

<%= Clinton Gallagher
METROmilwaukee (sm) "A Regional Information Service"
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://metromilwaukee.com/
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/

[1]
http://beta.asp.net/QuickStartv20/aspnet/doc/ctrlref/navigation/menu.aspx
[2] http://www.15seconds.com/issue/040727.htm

 

[darrel]

You should use the ASP.NETbeta 2 QuickStarts [1] to learn more about what
is

possible. Visual Studio 2005 emits section508 compliant source although I
have yet to run any through Bobby or any other validating process. I think
you can also get some insight by reading this three part series of articles
[2] about accessibility in ASP.NET 2.0.

Thanks Clinton. I'll take a look.

-Darrel