Free - Improving Accessibility for Motor Impaired Users

The unique requirements for motor impaired web users can often be overlooked or poorly implemented. Motor impairments can be caused by a stroke, Parkinson's disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a physical disability or even a broken arm. This group of users essentially have limited or no ability to use a mouse.

Use a focus state for links

Assigning a background colour to focused links is probably the most important thing you can do for keyboard-only users tabbing through web pages. When users tab on to any one link this background colour will display, clearly highlighting where the user is.

If your website doesn't provide this focus state then it can be difficult for keyboard-only users to orientate themselves on pages. A focus state for links can be easily achieved with the following CSS code:

a:active, a:focus {background: yellow;}

For such a simple implementation it's amazing how few websites actually offer this.

Provide a visible 'skip to content' link

'Skip to content' links have historically targeted screen reader users, yet are also useful for motor impaired users. A skip link is an invisible link that allows screen reader users to jump over the navigation on each page and get straight to the main content.

Skip links are very useful for keyboard-only users but only if they're made visible when focused on (otherwise how will they know the link exists?). If the link is assigned class="hide" then the following CSS code can be used to hide the link but then make it appear when users tab on to it:

a.hide
{
position: absolute;
left: -9000px;
top: 0;
}
a.hide:focus, a.hide:active
{
left: 0;
}