Yes, using aria attributes does help, but most of the older sites we're trying to make accessible don't have these. Most of the time its a simple coding fix to add these though.
The other issue is the placement of the menu in the upper right or left hand corner is nearly impossible to find with TalkBack or VoiceOver controls. Sometimes even with aria attributes, you really have to search with your finger to find the menu and interact with it.
Thanks for that. We take care to build with aria attributes, but the search for the menu icon is something I hadn't considered. Is top right / left corner not enough of a convention for a menu hamburger that it's difficult to find, or is is more about the size of that button?
When you use VoiceOver for example, an easy test is dragging your finger down the middle of the screen, you should be able to access the majority of the content - when the menu is tucked too far up in the corner, or too small, it gets obscured by the logo, CTA or anything else that's in the area and gets bypassed by VoiceOver.
Making it large enough to find by simply dragging your finger down the middle of the screen is a good enough test to determine if its big enough, too small or located somewhere it would be skipped by those screen reader tools.
The other issue is the placement of the menu in the upper right or left hand corner is nearly impossible to find with TalkBack or VoiceOver controls. Sometimes even with aria attributes, you really have to search with your finger to find the menu and interact with it.