[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #43095: Audit the usage of `aria-haspopup` in the admin menu

[WordPress Trac]

#43095: Audit the usage of `aria-haspopup` in the admin menu
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 Reporter:  afercia            |      Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)       |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal             |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Administration     |    Version:
 Severity:  normal             |   Keywords:
  Focuses:  ui, accessibility  |
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 In the admin menu (the one in the left sidebar, not the toolbar one) items
 that have a sub-menu have an `aria-haspopup` attribute. While the intent
 is good, I'm not sure this is a 100% appropriate usage. We've discussed
 this during today's accessibility team meeting and agreed it's worth
 investigating.

 In the previous ARIA 1.0 recommendation it was clearly stated that `aria-
 haspopup` is meant to be used on controls that require user activation to
 reveal additional content. Then, in the new [https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-
 aria/#aria-haspopup ARIA 1.1] recommendation, the sentence "This means
 that activation renders conditional content"
 [https://www.w3.org/2016/04/28-aria-minutes.html#item03 was removed].
 Regardless, this doesn't necessarily change things and the new values for
 `aria-haspopup` don't seem to suggest the current usage in WordPress is
 100% correct.

 What does "user activation" means?

 The `aria-haspopup` makes perfectly sense when users of assistive
 technologies land on an interactive item and need to be informed that
 activating the item reveals additional content.

 That's not the case with the admin menu. Both when tabbing or arrowing
 when using a screen reader, all the menu items including the sub-menu
 items get revealed without requiring any special user action.

 In this case, the information provided by `aria-haspopup` seems pointless,
 if not confusing.

 Only in the responsive view, the admin menu works differently and the top
 level items do require user activation to reveal the sub menus. Seems
 `aria-haspopup` should be used only in the responsive view.

 We should further investigate this issue and test with assistive
 technologies, not only screen readers but also, for example, speech
 recognition software.

 For reference, the major screen readers announce `aria-haspopup` this way,
 as of January 2018:

 {{{
 NVDA "sub menu"
 JAWS "has pop-up"
 VoiceOver "Menu pop-up"
 }}}

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/43095>
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