Keyboard access

The Queensland Government website has been developed to be fully accessible via keyboard and using alternate input devices.

Access keys

What are access keys?

Access keys are keyboard shortcuts and deliver quick access to important links on this site without using your mouse.

Access keys may benefit people with motor skill difficulties who use assistive technologies.

The access keys used on qld.gov.au are:

• 1 : Queensland Government website home
• 2 : not in use
• 3 : not in use
• 4 : contact us
• 5 : search
• 6 : not in use
• 7 : not in use
• 8 : not in use
• 9 : not in use
• 0 : access key help

How to use access keys

On a Windows computer: press Alt and the access key number to go to the linked page.

If you are using a Firefox browser on a Windows computer: press Alt and Shift and the access key number to go to the linked page.

On a Mac computer: press control and option and the access key number to go to the linked page.

Skip links

If you are using an assistive technology such as a screen reader to browse this site, skip links are provided at the beginning of the page to allow you to move quickly to key information such as the primary navigation, secondary navigation or content.

The links are not visible in a graphical browser but can be access as the first links in the tab order for each page.

Tab order

The Queensland Government website (qld.gov.au) has a logical tab order for navigating without a mouse. Use the tab key on your keyboard to move to the next link or field. Use shift plus tab to move backwards, and the enter key to follow links and submit forms. Most browsers support these functions.

ARIA keyboard navigation

All rich interactive elements on the Queensland Government website can be navigated using key combinations recommended by the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) standard.

When using a browser that supports ARIA, you can:

• use the tab key to enter an interactive element as part of the tab order for the page
• use the arrow keys to move focus between the different controls for the interactive element; and
• use the Enter key to activate a focussed control
• use the tab key to move to the next set of controls or to leave the interactive element.

The following browsers are known to support ARIA:

• Internet Explorer 8 and later
• Firefox 2 and later
• Opera 9 and later
• Google Chrome

When using a browser that does not support ARIA all controls are still accessible as part of the normal tab order.