Keyboard and screen readers
You can use most of Tabula without a mouse, and a screen reader hears what changes on the board. This page covers what works, and what does not yet.
Moving around
TabandShift+Tabmove through the toolbars, panels and menus. A ring shows where you are.- Dialogs keep
Tabinside until you close them, and the board behind them is not reachable.Esccloses a dialog or a menu and puts you back on the button that opened it. - Menus and panels that open from a button start on their first item.
- In a group of choices, such as the colours in a swatch row, alignment, or the themes in the board menu,
Tabstops once on the chosen option. The arrow keys,HomeandEndmove between options and choose one. For the dots-per-person presets and the sticky note colours, the arrow keys move andSpaceorEnterchooses. - Every tool has a shortcut. See Shapes, text and sticky notes and Getting started.
What a screen reader announces
Buttons and fields have names, colours are named ("Blue", not a code), and each dialog is named by its heading. The board page has a main area, labelled regions for the top bars and the quick-action bar, and a heading with the board's name.
A hidden announcer says what you would otherwise only see:
- People joining and leaving.
- Changes of the sync state, such as Live or No access.
- Objects deleted or added (including by duplicate or paste), undo and redo, and moving an object forward or backward.
- New comments and replies from other people.
- A session timer starting, pausing and running out, and your dots left after you stop clicking.
- Poll results being revealed. The "answered" count on a poll updates in place.
Messages that appear on screen for a few seconds, such as Locked, are announced too. The sign-in email and team name fields are marked invalid when they have an error.
Other settings
- Tabula follows your system setting for reduced motion: slides and fades are shortened or removed.
- In a high contrast mode, colour swatches keep their colours and the chosen option is outlined.
- You can zoom the page with your browser. On a phone, pinching the toolbars zooms the page. Pinching the board itself zooms the board.
What does not work yet
The board itself is not yet operable from the keyboard. You cannot select, move, resize or connect objects that already exist with the keyboard, and a screen reader does not read what is on the board. You can create objects with the tool shortcuts and, once something is selected, nudge it with the arrow keys, edit its text with Enter, duplicate, delete and change its stacking. This is planned.