About UDM

Ultimate Dropdown Menu Version 4 is unique among its contemporaries - there is no other menu system available on the internet today, which quite matches UDM's combination of accessibility, usability and feature-rich design.

Since Version 4's release in January 2004, some of our competitors have emulated our designs, while others have copied our accessibility features; but none have reproduced the whole package!

UDM was the world's first fully-featured and accessible DHTML menu, and remains the most flexible and robust solution on the market.

• How can a DHTML menu be accessible?
• What does "fully-featured" mean?
• Tell me more about ...

How can a DHTML menu be accessible?

Because UDM is not generated in pure javascript - it's made out of HTML lists, which means that every browser gets some form of useable navigation, all the way back to plain text.

And the styling can be plain CSS, so that for people using a supported browser but with javascript disabled, your navigation bar still looks the same!

Neither Flash nor Java can claim anything like that level of accessibility - the main navigation bar is accessible to all browsers that understand HTML - and unlike traditional DHTML navigation, it doesn't rely on javascript to exist.

Here's how it degrades:

DHTML

Full functionality for supported browsers with javascript enabled. The majority of your site visitors will see the menus like this.

CSS

Partially-supported graphical browsers, and supported browsers with javascript disabled, can see the main navbar styled with CSS.

HTML

Core navigation through an unordered-list of links. Legacy and text-only browsers, most PDAs, search-engine robots, screenreaders and other access technologies will use the navigation like this.

Please see the accessibility tests page for more details.

What does "fully-featured" mean?

It means that UDM is comparable to any leading website menu system - the fact that it's accessible doesn't imply any reduction in functionality or design-richness. Even if UDM were not accessible, it would still be among the most sophisticated menu systems around.

More specifically, we use the phrase "fully-featured" because UDM is not the only accessible menu in existence - other developers are using and offering accessible list-based menus.

But UDM was the first to be both accessible and meet the criteria by which you would judge a conventional DHTML menu:

1. you can use it without having to know how it works;
2. it has rich design capabilities, that allow complex styles to be generated easily, without you having to account for browser variations yourself;
3. it has advanced usability features, such as synchronised open and close timers, self-repositioning menus, and intuitive keyboard navigation.

Tell me more ...

• Demos
• The Benefits of UDM 4
• Browser support
• Accessibility tests
• Disadvantages
• General FAQ

• Modules and extensions
• Script updates

• The author
• Credits and thanks
• Link-back to UDM

• The Benefits of UDM 4 →

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