Keyboard Accessibility

Sites are typically designed with mouse interaction in mind, but some individuals are unable to use a mouse, instead relying on a keyboard to navigate sites and content.

Keyboard-accessible sites allow the following features:

1. Links can be accessed through the Tab key.
2. Controls and user interfaces can be accessed through the Tab key.
3. The keyboard does not get trapped in page elements—users should be able to move out of each section with keyboard controls.
4. Keyboard focus is visibly apparent.
5. Interactive features (menus, modals, carousels and other rich features) comply with WAI-ARIA 1.0 Authoring Practices.

Keyboard Operation

You can test keyboard navigation and operation through any browser without special software. The following keys and key combinations work in most browsers.

• Tab: Move between links, page elements, form elements, buttons and navigation options.
• Shift+Tab: Move to the previous link, page element, form element, button or navigation option.
• Enter: Activate or access the currently selected element.
• Space: Activate, check or uncheck the currently selected element.
• Up/Down arrow keys: Move between radio buttons or through menu options and links.
• Right/Left arrow keys: Move through slideshows, carousels, navigation, menus, audio and video.
• Escape: Close pop-up or focused page elements and dropdown menus and return to the element that opened them.