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Disabled people do not like hamburgers!
Did you know that disabled people do not like hamburgers?
Here is why…
Hamburgers are generally not good for your health and yet many of us love them.
It is the same with websites.
Hamburger menus are almost always inaccessible for disabled people and yet most web designers love them.
You generally see them when you are looking at the version website on a mobile but I have reviewed many websites that have them on the desktop version as well.
It consists of 3 lines in a box with rounded corners. When you select it with your mouse, it opens up, so you can see all the pages and choose what you want.
The problem is that disabled people using assistive technology such as screen readers or voice recognition usually find one of two things:
- They cannot use the hamburger menu at all
- They can only use part of it
This means that they are not able to navigate the website, which is kind of important.
Here is how to fix it
However, there is a simple solution to this.
A sitemap.
A sitemap of your website allows disabled people to navigate to any page on your website via a clean, bulleted list.
Add a Skip Link to that Site Map, so that anyone can go straight to it and your problem is solved. This is because you have provided an accessible alternative.
Simple.
If you want to see an example of this in action, hit the tab key twice. Look at the top left corner of your browser and you will see a link:
Skip to Site Map
Follow this link and you will see the Site Map.
Caption: a hamburger with a big red x on top of it. Next to it is a line drawing of a blind person with dark glasses and a walking stick.
Would you like to find out more?
If you would like to find out more about website accessibility, please follow these links:
Find out more about a website accessibility audit
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who understand inclusive web design?
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