You can functionally use your desktop, or laptop computer, without a mouse. If clicking and fine point precision are pain points for you. Keyboard navigation on traditional computers can be a quality of life game changer for you.

But what is it and how does it work?

Software, websites, and modern operating systems, can be navigated just on the keyboard.

There are two types of users for this:

  • The ones who need it
  • The ones who like it.

Sometimes software and websites are made poorly and keyboard navigation suffers. If you are one of the two types of people above, you have run into this.

Keyboard navigation is one of the most overlooked and underestimated aspects of digital accessibility. Many disabled users benefit from this being done well in development.

If you code correctly, this should work by default. If you have AI do your code, it can be incredibly wonky and terrible for users.

How-to

Your TAB key is your best friend. TAB moves forward, SHIFT + TAB moves backwards. ENTER selects. Arrow keys and the space bar can be used to scroll.

Try it on a website. If the website is done right, you should see a clear dillineated box around each clickable element you pass through.

On the beginning of many webpages, there may be an option revealed to "Skip to Main Content". This is so you don't have to fumble on the navigation bar on each page when you don't need to.

The best way to learn is to do. It may be challenging at first if you are used to using a mouse. But try unplugging your mouse and only using your keyboard.

If you have a website that doesn't do well with keyboard navigating, contact me, and let's talk.