Self-consistency of main menu and page headings

[richardofsussex]

The main menu changes, depending on which item is currently selected. I don't think it should.

Specifically, the Search menu item (which is also the home page) is not present initially. Select another menu item and it appears.

Conversely, there is no indication which item on the main menu is currently selected. It should be distinguished from other menu items (both visually and semantically), and should be disabled.

Each page selected from the main menu should have a h1 heading, with a consistent layout. This is not currently the case.

[AlOneill]

@richardofsussex
The main menu changes are historically largely to do with space: using a hamburger menu at narrower widths might make this unnecessary.

Lokking at WebAim > Articles, they indicate visually which item is selected, but do not disable it and do not add any markup that would tell a screen reader user that it is the current page. (I have a feeling that there is a good reason for not disabling it but cannot recall for now.)

How might the current menu section be distinguished semantically? I'm not sure I understand the idea.

It would be good to be shown a site that implements all your suggestions.

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I believe that there is already an issue (on the SYSTEM WIDE board) calling for a unique h1 heading on every page (so that every user can understand where they are and which other pages they have open).

BTW, where did you get your info from? Not all info on accessibility is sound: some sources favour one set of users at the expense of another set. For example, W3C tend to see screen reader users sometimes at the expense of keyboard-only users.

[richardofsussex]

This issue arose just from looking at the BMD2 beta site, and thinking about what I saw. There is no 'background info' behind it.

I agree, on reflection, that indicating that a menu item represents the currently selected page semantically isn't feasible. Also, I notice that other sites also make all menu items, including that for the current page, active all the time. So I'll drop those two requests!