8. Keyboard Access Instructions

Provide instructions describing the keys (or gestures) needed for keyboard access if your media uses keys or techniques that differ from user agent (e.g. Web browser, PDF reader, Flash player) or mobile device defaults.

Rationale

Keyboard access users will usually be aware of basic keyboard access methods in their user agents. So, they will try those when they arrive at your media.

However, users (and even accessibility specialists at schools) cannot discover non-typical keyboard access methods without viewing the source code. Often the source code is not available (as in Flash applications). Even when it is available, review of the source code is too much to expect.

Commonly Used Keys

These are the basic keyboard interactions that typically work for Web products. If your application uses only these, there is no need to provide special keyboard access instructions:

• Tab and Shift Tab to bring elements into focus
• Enter or Spacebar to activate elements
• Arrow Keys to select radio buttons, checkboxes or menu items

Testing

Testing technique	Description
Tools	Test for this while you are testing for keyboard access (Pearson Guideline 6).
Output	Rarely, you may stumble upon a way to operate a site using the keyboard that is non-standard. Or perhaps someone from the product team might mention that keyboard access works, but only in some non-standard way.
Analysis	If something other than tab, shift + tab, spacebar, and arrow keys is needed to move about and select form options or if something other than enter or spacebar is needed to activate a link or button, users will need to be informed of the special keyboard access features in the product. This is an error only if there are no keyboard instructions that provide this information. The fix is to provide these instructions.

Related Guidelines

WCAG 2.0 A – SC 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap:

If keyboard focus can be moved to a component of the page using a keyboard interface, then focus can be moved away from that component using only a keyboard interface, and, if it requires more than unmodified arrow or tab keys or other standard exit methods, the user is advised of the method for moving focus away. (Level A)