Physical Disabilities

Physical disabilities can be the result of congenital conditions, accidents, or excessive muscular strain. Examples include spinal cord injuries, degenerative nerve diseases, stroke, and repetitive stress injuries.

While physical capabilities vary greatly between and within the disability examples cited, they have a common requirement for keyboard access to all controls, features, and information in application software. Providing comprehensive keyboard access is essential to ensure that the user who cannot utilize a mouse can productively use Motif applications.

Full keyboard access to an application is necessary, but not sufficient to make applications accessible. The other central requirement is to follow the key mapping guidelines found throughout this style guide. Consistent use of these mappings not only provides more usable applications for all users by reducing learning across applications, but also increases the effectiveness of alternate I/O technology such as speech control and screen reading software.

Guideline