Accessibility Feedback on RadMenu Implementation

[lan luo]

Hello Telerik team,

Our customer uses RadMenu as a navigation menu and utilizes https://hub.accessible360.com/ to guide their accessibility checks. Based on the results, they have shared the following suggestions for improving accessibility:

Navigation menus that open on hover must also be operable by keyboard and screen reader users. Depending on the desired functionality of the top-level navigation items, there are two recommended approaches:

• If the top-level item only triggers a submenu and does not navigate to a new page, it should be marked up as a <button>. Refer to the appropriate code sample for implementation guidance ( code sample )

• If the top-level item must both navigate to a page and open a submenu, an adjacent <button> should be added to control the submenu. Refer to the corresponding code sample for details ( code sample )

• If visual design constraints prevent displaying a separate visible button, the button can be visually hidden by default and revealed on focus, as demonstrated in the linked code sample (code sample)

Is there a way to implement these recommendations using RadMenu?

 

Thanks in advance,

Lan

[Rumen]

Hi Lan,

Please ensure that the RadMenu control is configured with RenderMode="Lightweight" and EnableAriaSupport="true" in order to enable full accessibility features. These settings ensure that the control renders the appropriate HTML structure and ARIA attributes required for compliance with WCAG 2.1.

The RadMenu already includes the necessary ARIA roles and attributes—such as role="menu", role="menuitem", aria-haspopup, and aria-disabled—to provide correct semantics for assistive technologies. With these settings enabled, the control supports keyboard navigation and screen reader interaction as expected, without requiring changes to the underlying markup.

While WCAG recommends using semantic elements like <button> for non-navigational actions, RadMenu achieves equivalent accessibility through ARIA roles and JavaScript behavior. This approach is valid and does not compromise compliance or user experience.

 

Regards,
Rumen
Progress Telerik