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This is an early unpublished editor's draft; content is incomplete and subject to change.

Keyboard operable

foundational

Normative Text

All components on the page/view that can be operated by pointer, audio (voice or other), gesture, camera, or other means can be operated using keyboard interface only.

Tests

This section is non-normative.

Procedure

For each interactive element:

  1. Check that it can be operated using only the keyboard and keyboard actions in the Standard Keyboard Navigation & Operation Keys and Techniques or described on the page where it is required or on a page earlier in the process where it is required.

Expected results

  • #1 is true.

Tests

This content needs to be written.

Key Terms

actively available

available for the user to perceive and use

audio

live or recorded sound signal

component

grouping of elements for a distinct function

conformance scope

A set of Views and/or Pages selected to be part of a conformance claim. Where a View or Page is part of a Process, all the Views or Pages in the process must be included.

How a person or organization selects the set is not defined in WCAG3. There maybe informative guidance on selecting a suitable set in future (similar to WCAG-EM), but regional laws or regulations may provide a methodology.

content

information, sensory experience and interactions conveyed

gesture

motion made by the body or a body part used to communicate to technology

keyboard interface

API (Application Programming Interface) where software gets “keystrokes” from

“Keystrokes” that are passed to the software from the “keyboard interface” may come from a wide variety of sources including but not limited to a scanning program, sip-and-puff morse code software, speech recognition software, AI of all sorts, as well as other keyboard substitutes or special keyboards.

page

non-embedded resource obtained from a single URI using HTTP plus any other resources that are used in the rendering or intended to be rendered together

Where a URI is available and represents a unique set of content, that would be the preferred conformance unit.

platform

software, or collection of layers of software, that lies below the subject software and provides services to the subject software and that allows the subject software to be isolated from the hardware, drivers, and other software below

Platform software both makes it easier for subject software to run on different hardware, and provides the subject software with many services (e.g. functions, utilities, libraries) that make the subject software easier to write, keep updated, and work more uniformly with other subject software.

A particular software component might play the role of a platform in some situations and a client in others. For example a browser is a platform for the content of the page but it also relies on the operating system below it.

The platform is the context in which the conformance scope exists.

pointer

a hardware-agnostic representation of input devices that can target a specific coordinate (or set of coordinates) on a screen, such as a mouse, pen, or touch contact

process

series of views or pages associated with user actions, where actions required to complete an activity are performed, often in a certain order, regardless of the technologies used or whether it spans different sites or domains

view

content that is actively available in a viewport including that which can be scrolled or panned to, and any additional content that is included by expansion while leaving the rest of the content in the viewport actively available

A modal dialog box would constitute a new view because the other content in the viewport is no longer actively available.

viewport

object in which the platform presents content

The author has no control of the viewport and almost always has no idea what is presented in a viewport (e.g. what is on screen) because it is provided by the platform. On browsers the hardware platform is isolated from the content.

Content can be presented through one or more viewports. Viewports include windows, frames, loudspeakers, and virtual magnifying glasses. A viewport may contain another viewport. For example, nested frames. Interface components created by the user agent such as prompts, menus, and alerts are not viewports.