Navigating content without a mouse
Mouseless navigation is navigation of a page or content without needing pointer or touch based interaction. For webpages, you should be able to navigate using only a keyboard. This is known as web accessibility, more information for which is provided by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) in their Web Accessibility Initiative.
For other programs and systems which are not web based, users should be able to consume your content using accessibility tools. Most commonly this will be a screen reading system or tool, which allows for navigation via headings, paragraphs, objects in your document and sections. It is best to design your content with these tools in mind, and when finished it can be useful to listen back to your content using a screen reader.
Webpages should be navigable with just a keyboard as a human interaction device.
When navigating a webpage, you must be able to navigate through all content by using the idea of "Focus". Focus is the object on a webpage which is currently selected or selectable. Focus should be sequential and using it, you must be able to navigate throughout an entire web page and be able to select all content.
In most browsers, you can navigate using the Focus by pressing the Tab key. This should then show the object which is currently focused, and progress sequentially. Screen readers often work in a similar way, also utilising hidden or non-viewable alternative text to describe content which cannot be absorbed through text alone, such as pictures, graphs and tables.
You can try this by going to a webpage of your choice, and seeing if you can navigate through using only your keyboard. While the Tab key is the most commonly used, a full array of navigation keys and descriptions of keyboard shortcuts can be found online.
The web has a host of further reading for designing for web navigation without a mouse and other accessibility features. Examples can be found below:
Browser specific navigation information can be found below:
It is almost impossible to navigate through an Office document without a mouse. Your documents must still be accessible while using screen reading tools. Screen readers commonly work by allowing for quick navigation through a document
You can check your documents yourself using freely available tools. This can allow you ensure that your document flows in the correct format, your content is understandable and that it is easy to jump to relevant content. When creating documents, it is best to have your content set up where Headings and Styles are used, pictures and other objects such as graphs or tables have alternate text describing the content, and for PowerPoint documents the content is set up with the correct reading order.
You can read about making your office documents accessible here.
St Mary's has Text Help - Read & Write available on all Open Access machines. This software is available to be installed on all St Mary's campus devices. If you wish to have it installed please contact the IT Helpdesk.
There are also screenreading tools built-in to Microsoft and Apple operating systems.