423364 - Functional relations established by javascript should be reflected in the accessible hierarchy

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Disability Access APIs, defect)

Description

[Joanmarie Diggs]

1. Open a message in Yahoo! Mail **using the classic interface**. 

2. Click on the Reply or Forward button to display its menu.

3. Examine the accessible hierarchy.

Expected results: The list items that make up the menu would appear in the hierarchy immediately after the button beneath which they are displayed.

Actual results: The list items that make up the menu appear towards the end of the hierarchy.

This is problematic for screen reader users because one must navigate past the remainder of the document to locate the menu items that were made visible.

Looking at the page's source, the lists that make up the menus in Yahoo! Mail's classic interface are in sections towards the end of the document and are made visible via javascript when one presses the associated button.  I assume that is why they appear towards the end of the hierarchy. 

At first I figured that there was nothing we could do about it because we have no way of knowing why the lists are down at the bottom or that *functionally* they are children of the buttons.  However, I took a look at the Reply button in the DOM Inspector.  If you choose JavaScript Object on the right and expand the "Menu" item, the objects that make up the Yahoo! mails Reply "menu" are shown.  So it would seem that it is possible (at least in this case) to detect the functional relationship between the buttons in question and their menus.  How can that relationship be exposed in the hierarchy so that users who are blind can easily access these things?

Comment 1

[David Bolter [:davidb] (NeedInfo me for attention)]

Mass un-assigning bugs assigned to Aaron.

Comment 2

[Eitan Isaacson [:eeejay]]

Yahoo has changed their mail interface 14 times since this bug has been filed :)
If you see this issue in any other site please reopen. Ideally, please try to reproduce it in a simplified HTML file for posterity and readability.