Building an accessible menubar component using React

The article describes the creation of an accessible Menubar component in React, inspired by a talk on dropdowns at Next.js Conf. The author emphasizes the importance of accessibility in web development and shares insights on building a menubar widget that adheres to WAI-ARIA design patterns. The process involves creating two functional components, Menubar and MenuItem, to enhance navigation for users relying on assistive technologies and keyboard controls. The article details the implementation of a roving tab index pattern to manage focus, and how the Menubar component tracks MenuItem nodes using React's createContext and useEffect hooks. Additionally, it outlines the creation of a Submenu component, which includes a Trigger and List, for handling more complex navigation scenarios. The piece underscores the importance of proper aria roles and attributes for screen reader compatibility, and concludes by acknowledging additional features like mouse pointer events and unit tests that could be explored in future discussions.