What is keyboard operability?

If you can follow a process or achieve a task on a web page using a pointing device, such as a mouse, you must also be able to do this using just a keyboard.

For information about keyboards as an assistive technology, see Keyboards — Knowledge Area: Assistive technologies.

A user interface component is keyboard operable if a user can interact with it and control it using just a keyboard.

Native HTML user interface controls are keyboard operable by default. This is one reason that using native HTML elements is preferred for accessibility. For example

a <button> element can be activated using the Space or Enter keys
the desired radio button (<input type="radio">) in a set can be selected with the arrow keys.

For more on what constitutes keyboard operability and some examples, see Understanding Success Criterion 2.1.1: Keyboard — WCAG 2 — W3C.

Note: Keyboard operability requirements do not apply where the functionality depends on the path followed by a user’s movement.

For example, a painting or drawing application on the web should provide keyboard-accessible commands for creating shapes like circles or polygons. But it cannot provide any freehand drawing functionality through keyboard-only input, as that depends on the path followed by the user’s input device, whether that’s a mouse, stylus, finger or eye tracker.