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Re: Keyboard Users and What They Use

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From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: Jan 18, 2012 7:54AM

Lisa,

For people who don't use a mouse, but also don't use a screen reader or other AT, the keyboard commands differ by the OS and programs you are using.

For web browsing in Firefox and IE, tab takes you through links and form fields. Space or Page Down scrolls through (but doesn't change focus.) Up/Down arrows scroll one line at a time. Firefox has an option that lets you use arrow keys to navigate within the pages. Opera uses slightly different keyboard shortcuts. For instance, tab only works on form fields.

Keyboard-only users rely on the program's documentation for more advanced features. For instance, here is Firefox's: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Keyboard%20shortcuts and Opera's: http://help.opera.com/Windows/11.60/en/keyboard.html

sb

Sarah E. Bourne
Director of Assistive Technology &
Mass.Gov Chief Technology Strategist
Information Technology Division
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.mass.gov/itd


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of LSnider
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2012 4:15 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Keyboard Users and What They Use

Hi Everyone,

For those who use keyboard only navigation, the tab key is most used from what I have read. Do you use arrow keys a lot? If so, when do you use them?

When you tab to a link you want to go to, for example a hidden skip to navigation link, do you press enter or some other key? I just wanted to confirm that this is the only way to activate this link...

I am a mouse user, so I only play with keyboard navigation and wondered if I was missing some tricks of the trade!

Cheers

Lisa