FRONTENDO
Emberhold Forge
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Accessibility · Keyboard & Focus
New technique

Life without a mouse

Plenty of people use only a keyboard, or a single switch. Every control must work with keys.

Links, buttons and form controls are focusable out of the box. Users move between them and operate them with a handful of keys.

That covers more people than you'd think: blind users with a screen reader, people with tremors or RSI, power users, and anyone using a switch device or voice control, which work by sending key presses. If something only reacts to a mouse, all of them are stuck.

  • Tab moves to the next focusable element; Shift + Tab moves back.
  • Enter follows a link or presses a button.
  • Space presses a button or ticks a checkbox.
  • Arrow keys move inside a group: radio buttons, menus, tabs.
  • Escape closes a dialog or menu.