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What Does Tabindex Mean? Tabindex Elements Error in Lighthouse Audit

You know that when you own a website you have to manage the users' entire experience on the pages, right? Well, that […]

Reviewed by Screpy Editorial Team

You know that when you own a website you have to manage the users’ entire experience on the pages, right? Well, that is exactly what the tabindex is for. The most important feature of this attribute is that it allows you to manage the keyboard focus.

Well, what does it mean? In other words, what can smart management of web widgets provide you with within your website? Let’s review it together.

Screpy experts have brought together the most common warnings in Google Lighthouse audits for you. Among these, tabindex is among those that are frequently searched for. Tabindex attribute should be used correctly to optimize the experience of users navigating the site using the keyboard. Misuse can damage the accessibility of the content on your website.

Today, we will examine all the features of the tabindex attribute closely and take a look at what you can offer your users with it. Let’s get started right away if you’re ready, folks!

What is Tabindex Attribute and Why Is It Used For?

When a tabindex attribute is used on a web page, the object becomes an element that can be focused with the keyboard. The tabindex attribute also determines how the user who focuses on the element will handle this focus. Generally, this value will be a numeric one, and the interaction captured with the keyboard is organized through values ​​of positive, negative, or 0.

So why is all this important? If web users surf on a desktop, they often use a mouse, that’s true. However, you still have to appeal to users who want to navigate your site using the keyboard. Otherwise, you could really lose a lot from your UX score. Someone who wants to navigate your site using the keyboard uses the arrow keys, the Enter key, the tab key, and more to jump from one element to another. While doing this, you need to determine which items can be missed by focusing. You can also use tabindex for this.

This choice will ensure that the focus is not on items that will take the user nowhere, and will allow the user to experience a quality website browsing using only the keyboard. You are at the right time to make such changes to your website.

Tabindex Attribute Usage Areas – Examples

Well, which areas can be navigated with the keyboard thanks to Tabindex?

  • For example, imagine that you are on the log-in page on a website. Thanks to the tabindex attribute, the user can go to the username field, then the password field, and finally the ” login” button by using the keyboard. A similar situation applies to logging out. This is provided by tabindex. Let’s examine a sample code sequence together:

<label for="username">Username:</label>

<input type="text" id="username">

<label for="password">Password:</label>

<input type="password" id="password">

<input type="submit" value="Log in">

Similar to the above, some of the elements that can be focused can be listed as follows:

  1. elements with an href attribute
  2. elements that are not type = “hidden”
  3. elements with an href attribute