Crafting an Accessible Menubar Component with React

Understanding the Requirements

Our goal is to create a horizontal menubar with a single submenu, utilizing React hooks and the compound component pattern. We’ll assume you’re familiar with these concepts. Our menubar will consist of a collection of hyperlinks grouped in an unordered list, wrapped in a navigation section.

Designing the Menubar

Let’s start by creating two functional components: Menubar and MenuItem.

const Menubar = () => {
  return (

  );
};

const MenuItem = ({ children }) => {
  return

    
{children}

;
};

Enhancing Accessibility

To make our menubar accessible, we’ll utilize the React createContext() and useEffect() hooks.

const MenubarContext = React.createContext();

const MenubarProvider = ({ children }) => {
  const [menuItemSet, setMenuItemSet] = React.useState(new Set());

  return (
    
      {children}
    
  );
};

Roving Tab Index

To manage focus within the component, we’ll apply the roving tab index pattern.

const Menubar = () => {
  const [currentIndex, setCurrentIndex] = React.useState(-1);
  const [previousIndex, setPreviousIndex] = React.useState(-1);

  React.useEffect(() => {
    // update tab index of each MenuItem based on the user's navigation
  }, [currentIndex, previousIndex]);

  return (

  );
};

Keyboard Controls

Next, we’ll add keyboard support to our menubar.

const navigateToPreviousItem = () => {
  // implementation
};

const navigateToNextItem = () => {
  // implementation
};

const navigateToFirstItem = () => {
  // implementation
};

const navigateToLastItem = () => {
  // implementation
};

const navigateToMatchingItem = () => {
  // implementation
};

document.addEventListener('keydown', (event) => {
  switch (event.key) {
    case 'ArrowLeft':
      navigateToPreviousItem();
      break;
    case 'ArrowRight':
      navigateToNextItem();
      break;
    case 'Home':
      navigateToFirstItem();
      break;
    case 'End':
      navigateToLastItem();
      break;
    default:
      navigateToMatchingItem();
  }
});

The Submenu

To create a submenu, we’ll define a new compound component, Submenu, composed of three functional components: Submenu, Trigger, and List.

const SubmenuContext = React.createContext();

const SubmenuProvider = ({ children }) => {
  const [submenuItems, setSubmenuItems] = React.useState(new Set());

  return (
    
      {children}
    
  );
};

const Trigger = () => {
  // implementation
};

const List = () => {
  // implementation
};

Putting it all Together

With our accessible menubar and submenu components in place, we can now create a fully functional navigation system.

const App = () => {
  return (
    
      
        
          

Menu Item 1

Menu Item 2

Submenu Item 1

Submenu Item 2

                
              
            
          
        
      
    
  );
};

By following these guidelines, we can create interfaces that are both visually appealing and accessible to all users.