Accessibility - Keyboard Navigation

Modified on Thu, 24 Sep at 10:43 AM

Create has been designed to accommodate users with disabilities. There are keyboard equivalents for mouse actions, descriptions and labels for all elements that can be read aloud (using a screen reader), and the interface will also display correctly when in high contrast mode.

Create has been developed not only for mouse users, but also for keyboard-only users. Keyboard users can navigate through the content using the keyboard shortcuts shown below. When users navigate through the keyboard, the access to the links on the screen is sequential: users must tab through all the links one by one before reaching a required function. The table below shows the standard controls.

Action	Key/Control	Notes
Switch focus between task panes/side bar/ribbon	F6	The focus will be indicated by a border or an outline
Opening a task pane from the side bar	Space bar	Use the up and down arrows to select a button/icon on the side bar, then press the space bar
Navigating through controls	Tab	Pressing tab will go through each control or group of controls in a sensible order
Navigating backwards through controls	Shift + Tab	Holding Shift and pressing tab will go backwards through each control or group of controls
Selecting a button/preview	Space bar/Enter	Can press either key to ‘click’ on a button
Switching radio buttons	Arrow keys	Once focused on a radio button in a group, the arrow keys can be used to switch between the radio buttons
Switching buttons/icons	Left/right arrow keys	To switch buttons/icons (e.g. in the Tables task pane) use the left/right arrow keys
Checking/unchecking a checkbox	Space bar	Once focused on a checkbox in a group, the space bar can be used to check and uncheck
Navigating a list box	Arrow keys	Once tabbed into a list box, you can use the arrow keys to switch between the items
Selecting item in list box	Enter	Once you have selected an item in the list box, you can use enter to select it
Picking item in dropdown list box	Arrow keys	When tabbed onto a dropdown box, the up and down arrow keys will scroll through the selections
Selecting an item	CTRL + Enter	To select an item e.g a template in a task pane press CTRL + Enter
Ok, Apply	Enter
Closing a task pane	CTRL + Space bar	Press F6 until the task pane has the focus. Press CTRL + Space bar. A drop-down menu appears in the title bar of the task pane.Press C to close. You could also use the down arrow key until the command is selected and then press Enter
Accessing buttons on ribbon	ALT	Pressing the ALT key will display all the shortcuts for using the ribbon
Close dialog box	Escape	Pressing escape when a dialog box is open will close it
Accept dialog box	Enter	Usually pressing accept when on a dialog box will accept, even when the button does not have focus