Accessible Navigation Menus

Web navigation menus on higher education websites are coded in a wide variety of ways, but there are only a few ways that are accessible. This session will explore different techniques for coding navigation menus, and discuss the merits of each. We will examine each HTML element and ARIA attribute individually in order to fully understand the effect that each component has on the user experience. We will also unveil the results of a nationwide research project in which we evaluated the accessibility of menus on higher education home pages across the United States.

Learning objectives include: Participants will learn at least two ways to properly code a web navigation menu. Participants will develop a better understanding of the effect of specific ARIA attributes, and of ARIA overall, on user experience. Participants will find out how well we're doing on deploying accessible navigation menus on our institutional home pages.