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A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

b.43z.one

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Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#11

Post by jwr »

Incidentally, I've been trying to use the keyboard to scroll webpages recently, and it's a disaster. Nobody does it, apparently.

PageUp/PageDown do not work correctly on sites that have a permanent topbar (some of the content is never shown). Cursor up/down often does something unexpected (for example in Mastodon, if you use PageDown several times and then cursor down, you will get yanked back).

I think it is a sad regression. Not everybody is able to use the mouse and its scrollwheel!

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#12

Post by hirako2000 »

h43z wrote: post #6
dannyfritz07 wrote: post #4

I'm using Firefox and the links were activated when I hit enter in the quick-find prompt. Not sure why the behavior is different than what the author is seeing.

The links yes, but what about buttons or other html elements?

Buttons work too.

The issue is with any JavaScript driven on click events tags. Some sites even have their tags not responding to keyboards events, because they have a hash href, and a JavaScript handler to redirect.

The web is beautiful place.

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#13

Post by h43z »

hirako2000 wrote: post #12
h43z wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The links yes, but what about buttons or other html elements?

Buttons work too. The issue is with any JavaScript driven on click events tags. Some sites even have their tags not responding to keyboards events, because they have a hash href, and a JavaScript handler to redirect. The web is beautiful place.

I don't see it working on firefox for buttons but on chrome. Both don't work on other html elements (div,span,..).

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#15

Post by cluckindan »

jwr wrote: post #11

Incidentally, I've been trying to use the keyboard to scroll webpages recently, and it's a disaster. Nobody does it, apparently. PageUp/PageDown do not work correctly on sites that have a permanent topbar (some of the content is never shown). Cursor up/down often does something unexpected (for example in Mastodon, if you use PageDown several times and then cursor down, you will get yanked back). I think it is a sad r…

In the EU and the US, this kind of broken accessibility is not legal and the service providers can be sued.

Only applies to public and commercial services, though.

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#16

Post by chrismorgan »

jwr wrote: post #11

Incidentally, I've been trying to use the keyboard to scroll webpages recently, and it's a disaster. Nobody does it, apparently. PageUp/PageDown do not work correctly on sites that have a permanent topbar (some of the content is never shown). Cursor up/down often does something unexpected (for example in Mastodon, if you use PageDown several times and then cursor down, you will get yanked back). I think it is a sad r…

I use Space/Shift+Space and PageUp/PageDown and End¹ for vertical scrolling all the time. It’s nowhere near a disaster. I also disable JS by default, which… well, actually that might help sometimes. And hinder other times.

Rarely, I find a page that doesn’t use the document scroll area, but makes its own which is not focused, and so you have to focus that (by Tab as many times as necessary, or by clicking) before you can scroll by keyboard. But that’s rare.

Long ago, Firefox started compensating for sticky headers, reducing the amount it would scroll the page by, and it mostly works well, though it’s not flawless. I don’t think I’ve observed the same feature in other browsers. One amusing situation that can arise is when the header disappears when you go down and reappears when you go up, so that repeating PageUp and PageDown yields net movement in one direction.

—⁂—

¹ End, but not Home, which is Fn+Left on my laptop, but the Left key hasn’t worked for over a year now. I’ve contemplated replacing the battery and keyboard, but the laptop’s falling apart in enough other ways it doesn’t quite feel worth the investment…

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#18

Post by chrismorgan »

h43z wrote: post #8
CodeMage wrote: post #5

When you press Enter in the search box, Firefox finds the next occurrence of your search pattern. An easy fix that doesn't require an extension is to press Esc first, which closes the search box, and then you can press Enter.

This works on links and buttons in chrome. In firefox just on links. In both it doesn't work for other html elements.

I was going to disagree with you, but… huh. It doesn’t work on buttons. Thought it did. Selection is set, but focus isn’t. Further workaround: Shift+Tab.

This feels like it may be a bug, but at the very least it’s not a recent regression—I tested Firefox 44 and it shows the same behaviour. (44.0 is the oldest version I can run now, apparently. I tried 4.0 first, the first version with linux-x86_64 builds, which I have run successfully in the past, I think even in the last year, but now all versions before 44.0 are crashing on startup.)

Re: A small change to improve browsers for keyboard navigation

#20

Post by ashton314 »

ashwinsundar wrote: post #17

I installed Vimium a few months ago and haven't looked back -> https://vimium.github.io/ Mouseless as well for navigating anywhere on the computer without a mouse -> https://mouseless.click/

For macOS users, I highly recommend ShortCat: https://shortcat.app/

ShortCat uses the accessibility API to put Vimium-style keyboard links on buttons and text fields in any app.

I find that Vimium works faster in Firefox than using ShortCat to click around websites, so I use both, but ShortCat technically should do everything (clicking-wise) that Vimium does.

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