Feature #20991
closedKeyboard Navigation and Accessibility
0%
Description
Hi All,
A key feature of an accessible website is the ability to navigate with the keyboard through the site.
Typically a user will use the tab key to click through links on the site, and use shift+enter/return to reveal options for each button.
In the video attached, I navigate through the firefox browser into the logged in commons homepage. The first couple tab clicks take me through the firefox options, and then there is a blank tab click (I cannot tell what is selected) and then the first and only selection on the Commons homepage is the search icon.
I think this is an access issue because users should be able to reach all aspect of the page with keyboard nav, and especially top level nav item on the homepage.
As it stands now, I cannot get to any Commons pages or directories using keyboard nav. Even when I search in the search bar, I get google search results and the keyboard options just allow me to tab through pages of search results.
What is the intended behavior for keyboard nav on the commons home pages? Can we improve this to make the site more accessible via keyboard?
Files
Updated by Raymond Hoh 25 days ago
- File firefox-keyboard-tab.gif firefox-keyboard-tab.gif added
I can't seem to duplicate your issue on my Firefox install, Laurie. See attached GIF.
I do see some skipped sections of the page such as the CV call out (Update: this is working, I just tabbed too fast :) ) and some of the footer links are tabbed out of order (admin bar links gets precedence, then the footer links), but other than that, I'm able to navigate with the keyboard using the Tab key.
Updated by Boone Gorges 25 days ago
I'm seeing similar behavior to what Ray's gif shows.
Laurie, it's interesting that your screencast shows that you're cycling through elements of the browser chrome (back, forward, URL bar, settings, etc) instead of through the document. In the attached gif, I did a refresh of the page, then began pressing Tab. On my machine, the first Tab sends me to the 'Skip to content' link - ie, into the document. If I use Shift+Enter to go backward, I'm led back through the browser chrome. Using Tab to go forward again, I am able to get back into the document. If you first click somewhere inside the document - something like the white background of the webpage - are you then able to use Tab for navigation?
Updated by Raymond Hoh 25 days ago
I think the difference is Laurie is on macOS and there appears to be keyboard navigation issues with macOS and Firefox.
Laurie, can you view this Firefox support thread to see if changing a configuration option will help? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1278793
I'm also wondering if Chrome or Safari will have the same issues on macOS or if this is just specific to Firefox.
Updated by Laurie Hurson 24 days ago
Hi All,
Thanks for taking a look at this. Yes, Ray is right - I am using MacOS with Firefox. Changing the accessibility tab focus to 7 fixed this issue. I can make a note to add this link to our accessibility documentation.
Sorry for the confusion, and thanks for your help!
Updated by Laurie Hurson 24 days ago
On Mac OS keyboard nav works fine in chrome. In Safari I had to turn on keyboard nav in advanced settings, but once i did so, it also worked.