Let visitors choose search suggestions with a keyboard

What to change

Ask the supplier to provide an appropriate suggestion interaction with clear focus, selection and dismissal behaviour.

A worked example

Illustrative example

A visitor types part of a service name, moves through suggested matches and deliberately activates the intended one without reaching for a mouse.

How to check the result

Accept when suggestions can be explored, chosen and dismissed through keyboard and assistive technology with the same destinations available to pointer users.

A mistake to avoid

A list that happens to be reachable by repeated Tab presses may still lack the predictable behaviour expected from its chosen control pattern.

Your action checklist

Use these checks to prepare a discussion with your team or supplier. Tick a check when you have recorded the decision or evidence, rather than when a feature has simply been promised.

Decisions to recordType a query that produces several suggestions and explore them with the keyboard. Check the currently highlighted suggestion is visible and distinguishable from the typed query.Select a suggestion, return and repeat with a screen reader. Ask the supplier to demonstrate the available options and the current interaction state.Dismiss suggestions without submitting and continue editing. The query should remain intact and the page should not navigate merely because an option was explored.

Evidence, open questions and decisionsNext action and responsible role

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