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Press Enter to activate a submenu, Tab to access the items and Escape to close the submenu.

keyboard navigation

Navigate Using the Keyboard

Photo of a keyboard

About the menubar

The Working Blind website has a menubar on every page. The menubar has seven links:

  • “Home,” “Video Series,” “About,” “Contact,” and “Donate” are regular links that load new pages.
  • “Jobseekers” and “Employers and Agencies” are special links that open menus without loading new pages.

Here’s how to interact with the menubar by keyboard:

Navigating to the menubar

The menubar is near the top of each page. The link before the menubar is the font-size widget.

Navigating through the menubar

To move between adjacent menubar items, press Tab and Shift + Tab. Although it might be possible to move between adjacent menubar items via the Right and Left arrow keys, we don’t recommend this method. Navigating around our menubar works best with Tab and Shift + Tab.

Exiting the menubar

When you reach the rightmost menubar item, pressing Tab exits the menubar and puts focus to the first link in the page content. Pressing Shift + Tab from the leftmost menubar item exits the menubar and puts focus on the font-size widget.

Opening links and menus on the menubar

Press Enter on any menubar item to open its page (for regular links) or open its menu (for “Jobseekers” and “Employers and Agencies”).

Navigating through an open menu

Once a menu is open:

  • Use Tab and Shift + Tab to navigate through an open menu.
  • Press Enter to activate the focused menu item.

Although it may be possible to move between menu items via the Down and Up arrow keys, we don’t recommend this method.

Exiting a menu

If you Tab past the last item on a menu, the menu stays open and focus moves to the adjacent menubar item. For example, tabbing from the last item on the “Jobseekers” menu moves focus to “Employers and Agencies” on the menubar. The “Jobseekers” menu remains open.

Only one menu can be open at a time. Opening a second menu closes the first menu.

Activating and interacting with submenus

The bottom item of both menus is a submenu. The same rules apply:

  • Press Enter to open a submenu.
  • Press Tab or Shift + Tab to navigate through a submenu.
  • Press Enter to activate the focused submenu item.

Closing submenus and menus

  • To close a submenu, press Esc. Focus returns to its parent menu item.
  • To close a menu, press Esc. Focus returns to the menubar item that opened it.