2.1 Keyboard Accessible

 I have skipped the last few in the previous section because they were mainly to do with HTML and CSS issues, which the vast majority of people don't work with... unless they are developers, in which case, they should be able to read the guidance and put it into practice themselves.

So I have jumped to the next section, section 2, which is about operability. Basically, all user interface components and navigation must be operable - be able to be used.

The first guidelines in this section address keyboard navigation. All functionality should be achieveable by keyboard only. That means... unplug your mouse and check that you can still use whatever it is you have designed.

Challenge

Before we start delving into the specifics of this one, I would like to challenge you to live for a day or two without your mouse. Unlug it! Put it in the drawer. Do everything with your keyboard.

Why is this important?

Because you will begin to understand some of the challenges of keyboard navigation. You might find that you actually come to prefer keyboard navigation for some tasks but you might also find that you get stuck sometimes or a task takes ages to complete. Understanding this, through lived experience, is really valuable.

Let me know how you get on.

Why doesn't everyone just use a mouse?

Good question. If you think about it, you will probably think of many reasons why some people can't use a mouse and hundreds more why some people prefer not to. I'll start you off...

  • Arthritis
  • Dexterity impairment
  • No hand/arm (one or both)
  • Pain conditions
  • Posture issues
  • Tremor.
How many more did you come up with?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For anyone who's ever wondered what's inside a computer

Image
The inside of a computer is really interesting! It's like being able to open up a brain and see how it all connects together and how it links to the other organs in the body. You don't need to know it but it's interesting and sometimes rather handy to understand how it works (at a basic level, at least). Motherboard I love looking at the motherboard. It's full of little tiny parts, chips, places to plug things in, and bits that stick out through the case of the computer. Over time, they have changed a fair bit but they still do the same job. When you look at the back of a computer, you can see lots of places where you can plug things in: USBs, printers, headphones, etc. Most of these are on the motherboard and connect to other parts inside. Central processing unit (CPU) This is sometimes just called the processor. It's now a tiny component but it has a very important job. It's what makes the whole thing work. Because it does such a big job, it
Read more

Articulate 360 - Storyline

Image
I've kept it fairly quiet but I've been looking for a new job for a few months now. Not that my old job isn't great, but I've always wanted to specialise more in e-learning and my main aim has been to get into content creation. E-learning is a growing industry, so there are many jobs out there. Of course, the vast majority are in London and I have no desire to move back there at all. The other sticking point though is a piece of software, that I have no experience of and is very expensive to acquire. Nearly all e-learning jobs want experience in Articulate 360 and specifically in Storyline. What is it? Storyline is a bit like PowerPoint in some ways. You have slides and you can combine different kinds of content with transitions and animations. However, in the words of one of my favourite films, "It is so much more than just" PowerPoint. You can bring in a whole level of user interaction that PowerPoint doesn't even begin to touch. When your project is
Read more

PFD Accessibility - fixing tags and reading order

Image
There are two possible problems with the tags in a PDF. The first is that the document is untagged. This means that no tags have been given and therefore a screen reader will have to get information in some other way. The second is that the document is tagged... maybe it has been automatically tagged when created from Word... but the tags are not quite right.  This can happen when the Word document or PowerPoint that the PDF was created from, wasn't checked for accessibility, but there are other things that can affect it too. It is always best to check the tags.  In the video that follows, I have deliberately kept in some of the things I tried that didn't quite work, to show you how to overcome them. It is a longer than usual video, but should give you a good overview of how to check and fix tags. Fixing Tags Tags determine the running order of a PDF when it is read by a screen reader. So the most important thing is that all the items are in the correct order. In the video, som
Read more