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Navigate website with keyboard tab key

  • 4 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by zeroknight

Ken M
Ken M
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I am not able to navigate websites per the ADA Accessibility requirements using my FireFox browser. I have tested the same websites in Chrome and the TAB key is working correctly, but in my instance of Firefox it does not. I have a colleague who tested the same website in their Firefox browser and they are not experiencing a problem navigating the website using their keyboard TAB key.

I am on a Mac with most recent FF installed. Colleague was on a PC and tested in FF.

How can I get FF to work correctly on my Mac?

I am not able to navigate websites per the ADA Accessibility requirements using my FireFox browser. I have tested the same websites in Chrome and the TAB key is working correctly, but in my instance of Firefox it does not. I have a colleague who tested the same website in their Firefox browser and they are not experiencing a problem navigating the website using their keyboard TAB key. I am on a Mac with most recent FF installed. Colleague was on a PC and tested in FF. How can I get FF to work correctly on my Mac?

All Replies (4)

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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See:

The accessibility.tabfocus pref may not exist by default, if you want to use this pref instead of the system settings, you need to create a new Number pref with name 'accessibility.tabfocus' and value '7' (tab through all the fields).

  • about:config => accessibility.tabfocus => 7

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. On the warning page, you can click "Accept the Risk and Continue" to open about:config.

Ken M
Ken M Question owner
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Thank you! The browser about:config setting fixed the issue.

I hope that this becomes a default FF setting on mac installs so that accessibility users can easily navigate websites using their keyboard. There has been a push for web developers to build websites that are ADA accessible/compliant, and if the browser does not natively support keyboard navigation, those users with accessibility issues may have a difficult time navigating those websites using FF.

Chrome has keyboard TAB navigation enabled by default.

Thanks again for your help. :)

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Firefox follows the Mac System preferences setting.

  • [13]:System Settings -> Keyboard -> "Keyboard navigation"
  • [12]:System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls"

This might change in future Firefox versions.

  • 1843669 - Consider changing the default macOS focus behaviour to include links and form controls

(please do not comment in bug reports
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html)

zeroknight
zeroknight
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It's exposed in the settings in version 117+ on Mac as "Use the tab key to move focus between form controls and links" (Bug 1628476).