Focus Order
Sep 20, 2021
By
SG Thompson
No matter how I set the focus order, when tabbing, the "rectangles" move through the text entry fields and skip over other objects. For example, I have a name field, then an object (small rectangle) that starts hidden but changes to normal based on the name field entry, then an address field. When tabbing, the curser goes from text entry field to text entry field. This causes the eye to go to the next text entry field and skips the object. I figure there is something I don't understand.
I have attached one slide as an example - there's a lot going on, but maybe you can see what I'm asking.
4 Replies
Hello SG Thompson!
I'm happy to help! Keyboard navigation includes the arrow keys as well as the TAB key. The TAB key is used for moving to interactive objects like text entry fields, buttons, hotspots, etc. Up and Down arrow keys will move to content like text and shapes.
Are you testing your course with a screen reader? If so, you'll want to search for the keyboard shortcuts assigned by the screen reader you are using. A quick Google search like "NVDA keyboard shortcuts" will display the list of keyboard shortcuts needed to correctly navigate to content when using that specific screen reader.
I will change my shape to a button to see if that works. We are not actually setting this up for screen readers, yet. It just so happens that the accessibility features support general use as well. Thanks.
I set up a couple of buttons to see I could get this working better. The focus order is set correctly, but the yellow focus still skips over buttons when using the tab key. Do you have to specifically set the action with "key"triggers to get the focus order to recognize the buttons? My problem is that the focus causes the eyes to skip over intermediate steps.
Hi SG,
It sounds like you may be using the visible focus indicator in a non-traditional way.
For the tab key and the focus indicator to display for all objects on your slide, it will need to be an interactive object. This article explains the behavior.