Menu disappering in High Contrast mode

[sfefer]

We are using udm menu for 508 compliant application. One of our test cases is to try it in Windows XP High Contrast mode (you can get it from Control Panel - Accessibility Options - Display -High Contrast). The menus (all submenus) are disappeared and we can't use any of its functions. UDM is suppose to be 508-compliant, any ideas about that?

[bcarl314]

sfefer,

Good point. The UDM menu is designed to be 508 compliant, but there are several factors that are at the users discretion that can effect accessibility. One of those is the color choices you make for your specific menu.

As outlined in our accessibility tests: http://www.udm4.com/menu/accessibility/#guideline2

The colors you choose for the menu can impact the accessibility to someone having color deficits. I would suggest trying other color combinations for your menu.

[sfefer]

I checked with your demos - the same happens with your submenus, with different color combinations. It happens with IE 6 & 7, not with Firefox.
Submenus completely eliminated from the page -

[bcarl314]

This is deliberate behavior.

When a user overrides the menu styling with their own, it's no longer
possible to determine what the background color of menus will be - for
example, when you use the IE option to ignore page colors and use your
own, and when using the high contrast scheme in XP. Now actually IE6
for XP has a bug in its implementation of custom color overrides, and
styles backgrounds white, when they should be transparent; but this is
a bug and not predictable behavior.

The bottom line is that when user styles are in force, the menus may
come out transparent. And transparent menus are impossible to use. So
for the sake of overall accessibility, when user styles are detected
the submenus are disabled and only the main navbar is available.

The way to cater for this is to make sure that the navbar links go
somewhere useful where deeper sections are linked; but users should be
doing that anyway - if a site aims to meet 508 compliance then
everything which is accessible from submenus must also be accessible
without them.

Originally Posted by sfefer

I checked with your demos - the same happens with your submenus, with different color combinations. It happens with IE 6 & 7, not with Firefox.
Submenus completely eliminated from the page -

Hello,
I agree with you But not so much because sometimes it happens in the Firefox also.

[meannn]

You are right that, "The bottom line is that when user styles are in force".