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Re: Short cut keys

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Jul 17, 2020 5:29PM

> Is there a way for a native screen reader user to emulate the experience of a keyboard only user that doesn't use assistive technology?

You can use the pass through keystroke in your screen reader to send the key through and then continue from there. However, if the only change is visual scrolling then when you continue navigation with the browse cursor you will not likely notice any difference as home/end will only scroll the screen visually and make no impact to screen reader users. If you are using JAWS you would be able to turn on the JAWS cursor to read the text on-screen to see if it's changed as this will reflect what is visible on the screen and not in the virtual buffer.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of David Engebretson Jr.
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2020 7:15 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List' < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Short cut keys

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I think I'm missing something here as a native screen reader user.
Control+home and control+end always bring me to the first and last
Control+elements
on the page, respectively (at very least the first and last items in the DOM).

Is there a way for a native screen reader user to emulate the experience of a keyboard only user that doesn't use assistive technology?

I'd like to know what a keyboard only user experiences but I can't do much without my screen reader activated since I'm blind and rely on the screen reader to tell me where I am and what I'm navigating.

Am I making any sense? I don't want to clog up the list with questions that aren't relevant to the mission of the list, or the intent of the initial question.

I've always considered myself a keyboard only user since, with a screen reader, I use only the keyboard to navigate. I haven't used a mouse in 20 years.

Thanks for all thoughts. I appreciate your feedback.
David



-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of glen walker
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2020 2:05 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Short cut keys

Home/end or ctrl+home/end have always worked for me. As noted earlier, it scrolls the page but does not move the keyboard focus, but I don't consider that a big deal (for me). If I need my focus moved to the first or last element on the page, I can easily get there by going to the address bar (which has a shortcut key) then either tabbing forwards or backwards depending if I want my focus at the top or bottom of the page, respectively.

For sighted keyboard users, you have to think about what it means to go to the top or bottom of the page. Visually, it's easy to scroll the page to the top or bottom, but if you want your focus moved, for keyboard users, it should move the first or last *focusable* element and not just the first or last DOM element. For screen reader users, moving to the top of the page puts the screen reader focus on the first DOM element, which makes sense.
For keyboard users, putting the focus on the first DOM element, if it's not an interactive element, does not make sense.