Provide Keyboard Access to All Features

[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]

Requirement   (Designed for Microsoft® Windows® Logo)

Your application must provide keyboard access to all features.

Exceptions

Exceptions may be made in the following cases:

• Games that are dependent upon the use of a mouse or joystick. It is recommended, but not required, that games provide keyboard support where feasible. They should not require a pointing device except where it is unavoidable due to the nature of the game.
• Applications that rely on specialized input devices such as graphing tablets.
• ·Situations where the mouse targets are no larger than a pixel. For example, painting with the mouse. These features may rely on the MouseKeys feature built into the 32-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems to allow users to move the mouse pointer. However, this is not acceptable for drawing when the user can independently manipulate separate text and graphic objects. This exemption applies to individual features within a product, not to entire applications.

Exceptions may be made for minor features that are not required for operation of the program, when the major features in the application have keyboard access. All major features or functional areas without keyboard access should be explained in the Vendor Questionnaire.

See Also

http://microsoft.com/enable/ for accessibility guidelines for application developers.