44 Roving Focus. 44 of 95.
44/NAVIGATION/44 of 95
Roving Focus
A group of controls should feel like one Tab stop.
The problem
When every item in a toolbar is a separate Tab stop, keyboard users must press Tab dozens of times to get past it.
The solution
The group is one Tab stop; arrow keys rove focus inside it.
Experiment
Play with the values
How it works
- The group is one tab stop, so Tab does not walk through every item.
- The active item has tabindex 0 and is the one Tab lands on.
- The other items have tabindex -1, so they are skipped by Tab but can still be focused by script.
- Arrow keys move the active item inside the group.
- Tab from the active item leaves the group entirely.
Seen in
Toolbars
Formatting toolbars behave as one stop with arrow-key navigation.
Tabs
Tab lists move between tabs with arrows, matching ARIA guidance.
Menus
Menu items are traversed with arrow keys, not Tab.
Radio groups
Arrow keys select within the group as a single focusable unit.