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2.1.1 Keyboard

MCS Accessibility Team

MCS Accessibility Team
Last Updated July 23, 2020

The following directions are part of a full step-by-step guide to making a HubSpot website WCAG 2.1 AA compliant. These recommendations are intended for websites managed on the HubSpot CMS but can be adapted for other content management systems.

LEVELA
Principle: Operable
User interface components and navigation must be operable.
Guideline: Keyboard Accessible
Make all functionality available from a keyboard.

All functionality of the content is operable through a keyboard interface without requiring specific timings for individual keystrokes, except where the underlying function requires input that depends on the path of the user's movement and not just the endpoints.

Note 1: This exception relates to the underlying function, not the input technique. For example, if using handwriting to enter text, the input technique (handwriting) requires path-dependent input but the underlying function (text input) does not.
Note 2: This does not forbid and should not discourage providing mouse input or other input methods in addition to keyboard operation.

View Official WCAG 2.1 Compliance Techniques

Understanding 2.1.1 Keyboard

Most actions performed by a pointing device such as a mouse can be done from a keyboard like clicking and selecting text. However there are a few tasks that can't be done from a keyboard such as free hand drawing, painting, and or games that require eye hand coordination from a pointing device.

Warnings

When designing your site, try to be mindful to test the user experience from the perspective of someone relying solely on the use of the keyboard to engage and interact with your site.

However, the average website does not have the need for this type of keyboard functionality (e.g. free hand drawing), so most likely your website meets this standard.

For more information, please visit the official W3C article: Understanding 2.1.1 Keyboard

Next Article: 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap

Questions?

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