Accessibility And Keyboard Use

Touchbook directives use native HTML controls wherever possible. Buttons, inputs, text areas, selects, links, and dialogs keep their browser keyboard behavior and programmatic labels. This helps assistive technology and lets each browser expose controls in the way users expect.

Keyboard Basics

Most Touchbook controls follow standard browser behavior:

  • Tab moves forward through focusable controls.

  • Shift+Tab moves backward through focusable controls.

  • Enter activates links and most buttons.

  • Space activates buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, and similar controls.

  • Arrow keys may move within composite widgets, such as tab groups.

Tab Groups

The tb-group directive renders an ARIA tab interface. Only the selected tab is in the normal Tab order. This is intentional and follows the common roving-tabindex pattern for tabs.

When focus is on a tab:

  • ArrowRight moves to the next tab.

  • ArrowLeft moves to the previous tab.

  • Home moves to the first tab.

  • End moves to the last tab.

  • Tab moves into the selected tab panel when that panel contains a focusable control.

For example, if a tb-group has Source and Rendered tabs, Tab does not normally move from Source to Rendered. Use the arrow keys to select Rendered. Then use Tab to enter the rendered content.

Platform Settings

Keyboard navigation can depend on operating system and browser settings. If Tab skips buttons or other native controls, check the platform settings before assuming the page is broken.

macOS

In System Settings, open Keyboard and enable full keyboard navigation. Safari also has a browser-specific setting in Advanced named Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage.

When full keyboard access is disabled, macOS browsers may require Option+Tab or Alt+Tab to move to buttons and other controls.

Windows

Windows browsers usually include buttons in the normal Tab order. If navigation seems incomplete, check browser accessibility settings and any installed keyboard or assistive-technology utilities. In Microsoft Edge and Chrome, also check whether caret browsing or extension settings are changing keyboard behavior.

Linux

Linux behavior depends on the desktop environment, browser, and assistive technology stack. GNOME, KDE, Firefox, Chrome, and Chromium usually include native buttons in the normal Tab order. If they do not, check desktop keyboard accessibility settings, browser settings, and screen-reader or extension configuration.

Testing Guidance

When testing Touchbook content for keyboard accessibility:

  • Test with full keyboard navigation enabled.

  • Confirm that every visible control can receive focus.

  • Confirm that visible focus is easy to see.

  • Activate buttons with Space and Enter.

  • Test tb-group tabs with arrow keys, not only with Tab.

  • Test the static fallback output when building text or PDF formats.

Touchbook should provide accessible controls and predictable focus behavior. Operating system and browser settings can still change how users move through native controls.