HTML for navigating with "tab"

[hilandrfan]

(not sure if this is the correct forum for this question. . .)

I'd like to set up a site so that visitors who don't use a mouse can tab
through to the button/links. What are the tags/attributes/properties/rules I
need to accomplish this? I've seen other sites and looked at source code. I
see "a:focus", "index=1" etc. but I don't have a full understanding of
everything that's needed and how it works.

(I hope this makes sense.)

Thanks.

[Nick Barling]

Hi hilandrfan,

You can check the accessibility guidelines for html web pages at a number of
sites. Macromedia has some articles on accessibility in Dreamweaver, which
details the improvements in Dreamweaver in assisting the developer in making
accessible sites.

Check W3C's web site too, which has excellent tips on accessibility. A simple
google search under accessible html will give you lots of good links.

As well as html having tag sets that aid accessibility you can also benefit
from checking on server-side scripting accessibility issues, particularly the
use of JavaScript, which needs careful coding to aviod accessibility problems.

One of the most simple things that you can do is ensure that you use the alt
tag in all of your images and add a short description, use semantic html and
avoid deprecated tag sets. If you do not understand these terms then google
them and you will find a wealth of information on the subject.

Nick Barling

[hilandrfan]

Thanks for the ideas.

[rilkesf]

Browsers will automatically tab through links and buttons. You generally will
not need to add a tabindex attribute unless elements start to receive focus out
of order, as can sometimes happen with forms. Check this article for a quick
explanation.

[url]http://www.webaim.org/techniques/keyboard/[/url]

[hilandrfan]

Thanks. That's just what I've been looking for.