This translation has not been editorially reviewed yet. The German version is authoritative. Deutsche Fassung →
Checking keyboard operability: everything reachable, nothing trapped
Everything that goes with the mouse must also go with the keyboard – and the focus must come out again everywhere. An area that you enter with Tab and leave only with reloading is a keyboard trap — Criterion 2.1.2 at level A is then not met.
- The fastest self-test takes two minutes: put the mouse aside and operate your page using only Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, Space, and the arrow keys. Wherever you get stuck or can't trigger something, there's a finding.
- Typical traps are homemade controls: a <div> with a click handler is invisible to the keyboard. The same goes for dialogs that don't trap focus — you tab behind the window and operate invisible elements behind it.
- Scrollable areas belong here too: a box with horizontal overflow must be focusable, otherwise nobody without a mouse can reach its right-hand part. We found this finding twice on our own site.
