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Re: Keyboard navigation using arrows only

for

From: Mallory van Achterberg
Date: Sep 2, 2014 1:27PM

As a keyboard user, I expect to tab most of the time, and attempt
arrow keys when tab seems to skip stuff. Meaning, even though it
seems regularly recommended by accessibility experts "because it's
how Desktop apps work", the web has built up its own conventions
and non-screenreader-users are, except for old Opera users like me,
used to tabbing most of the time.

That said, I made a mega-menu where tab stuck to the main-level
links, and arrows were needed to go into the submenus. Again, relying
on that "tab isn't going in there so lemme try arrows" idea. So
always a bit of mystery-meat there for users.

If it's a specialised weirdo widget, adding a sentence with how-to
wouldn't be a bad thing.
_mallory

On Tue, Sep 02, 2014 at 06:24:18PM +0000, Jordan Wilson wrote:
> A question about keyboard navigation using arrow-only navigation instead of tabbing. Is that at all acceptable? A client site has good keyboard navigation if you use the arrow keys alone and they inform users that their site is optimized to be used that way. Unfortunately the site doesn't work at all with standard tabbing through content.
>
> I'm assuming that isn't acceptable, but since the arrow key navigation is actually quite good it seems intentional. They clearly spent a lot of time and effort ensuring the arrow navigation, so I figured I'd ask the community.
> > >