Web Accessibility - Part 3: Working without a mouse

Mouse free working

For some, not using a mouse is a preference. For others a mouse can be difficult to use because of injury or impairment from a variety of causes. I decided to put my mouse away, not just to test our own website, but to get a better insight into keyboard only working.

Keyboard shortcuts

It took some time to get my head around doing the things I do all the time with a mouse, with just a keyboard. These tasks include working with email, web browsers, operating systems, project management and accounting tools and a dual screen setup. I thought I knew a fair few keyboard shortcuts. I really didn't. I got stuck almost immediately. Finding keyboard shortcuts was my first challenge. Pressing the Shift and '?' keys brought up the shortcut keys for some systems, 'Alt' in others. Pressing keys randomly to see what happens wasn't the best approach. I didn't realise you could flip your screen 180 degrees.

Keyboard focus

Browsing and navigating web pages with a keyboard involves tabbing through the interactive elements such as links, buttons and form fields. Your web browser (Chrome, Firefox etc) should indicate which element has focus - and can therefore be interacted with via the keyboard. This is usually in the form of an outline around the element. I found a number of sites where this focus had been removed and I had no idea where I was. I didn't stay on these sites.

On our own website I found that the keyboard focus was unclear in certain parts of the site - particularly around images and the fields of our contact form. We have now developed the site to ensure the focus is clear throughout. We were also careful to ensure that the focus was still clear to those users who had chosen a different colour contrast theme in our accessibility settings.

'Skip to Main Content' links

Requiring keyboard users to tab through the main navigation menu on each web page they visit is unnecessary. A ‘Skip to Main Content’ link on each page of a website allows the keyboard user to skip to the main body of the page. We implemented this on our own site. The link appears as you tab onto each page.

Logical tab order

Even if the content in a web page is laid out in a logical order, it doesn’t follow that a keyboard user can tab through it in a logical fashion. I visited a website with content in a number of blocks. As I tabbed through the site there was absolutely no logic to the path I had to follow.

When the tabbing order is set in a website, it is possible to have a different tabbing order for sighted users and users of screen readers. A screen reader user may well have some vision or may be working with a sighted user so this different tabbing order can be frustrating and is best avoided.

All functionality accessible

Another frustrating site I visited had a ‘Log In’ button that I couldn’t tab onto. A great way to lose customers. All functionality on a site needs to be accessible using only a keyboard. Functionality only available when you hover over it with your mouse can’t be used by someone working with a keyboard only.

Keeping the user in control

Another problem I encountered was content opening up, without warning, and obscuring the content I was interested in. Not too terrible if you can close it, very annoying if you can't. This highlights the issue of not taking control away from a user, which is key to accessibility.

This issue also arises with moving content such as that found in carousels - where content, often images, rotate. Users need to be able to tab through such content at their own speed. They need to be able to operate controls to allow them to do this. We had added such controls to the carousel on our 'Our Work' page and will be doing the same with the moving content currently on our 'Home' page.

I’m continuing to work as much as possible without a mouse. One because it’s a great learning experience, accessibility wise, but also because I'm preferring working more with keyboard shortcuts and less with a mouse.

In my next blog I will look more at navigating around websites and how addressing web accessibility issues will improve a website for all users.

Angela Kilmurray

05 Jul, 2017

Last updated 22 July, 2017