Operable
2.1.1 Keyboard
Everything you can do with a mouse has to work with a keyboard alone.
Who it helps
People who cannot use a mouse, including many screen reader users and people with motor disabilities.
Failures we see most
- Clickable divs that cannot receive keyboard focus
- Carousels and menus that only respond to mouse events
- Custom dropdowns that ignore the arrow keys
How it gets tested
Our scanner runs these 3 axe-core checks for 2.1.1:
| Check | What it looks for |
|---|---|
frame-focusable-content | Frames with focusable content must not have tabindex=-1 |
scrollable-region-focusable | Scrollable region must have keyboard access |
server-side-image-map | Server-side image maps must not be used |
Automated checks can find failures of 2.1.1, but they cannot confirm that a page passes. A specialist still reviews it by hand.
How we fix it
A specialist fixes this in your site's code or content, and we re-test the page before you sign off.
Official text: W3C, Understanding 2.1.1 Keyboard. Checks listed from axe-core 4.14.0.
Related criteria
Does your site fail 2.1.1?
Our free scan checks up to 50 of your pages and tells you which criteria fail and where.