Lightning Experience Tips for Screen Readers

Composer Windows

A composer window is a dialog that stays at the bottom of your browser window. A composer persists across Salesforce pages until you close the composer or the browser tab. Typically, you use a composer for creating records. For example, you use a composer window when you create an object from the Global Actions menu in the page header.

A composer window consists of:

• A heading level 2
• Minimize or Restore button for switching the visibility of the composer window
• Maximize button for changing the composer window to a modal view
• Close button for closing the composer window without completing the task
• Composer body content, which usually consists of form fields
• Other buttons, such as Save or Done

When a composer opens, the first field in the composer window has focus. Press the Tab key to move the focus through the fields inside the composer window. Press the Escape key to navigate to the composer’s header. From the composer’s header, use Shift+Tab to navigate out of the composer and back to the browser tab.

To quickly navigate between two open composer windows, press the Escape key from inside a composer window to focus its header. Then use your arrow keys to navigate to the other composer window’s header. When you’re focused on the header of the composer you want to work in, press Enter to move into the composer’s content area.

For easier navigation with a screen reader, we recommend having only one or two composer windows open at a time. When too many composer windows are open to fit on the screen, an overflow menu button appears. To reach this overflow menu button, press g, then press d. You might need to also use your screen reader’s passthrough keys to send the g and d key presses directly to the page.

Type-Aheads and Lookups

Forms in Salesforce use combo boxes for lookup fields.

• For single-select lookup fields: When you select a value for the lookup, the combo box input field is replaced with an HTML link. The link represents the filled-in value and is wrapped in an application role so that the data is sent to the application. You can clear the value by navigating to the link with your Tab key and pressing the Delete key. Your focus then moves to the restored combo box input.
• For multi-select lookup fields: When you select a value for the lookup, the value is added to a list of selected values immediately after the combo box. This list is wrapped in an application role. From the combo box, press the Tab key to move your focus into the list of selected values. Use the arrow keys to navigate the list, and use the Delete key to remove individual values. When you navigate away from a lookup with selected values, the combo box is hidden on the page. Navigate back to the selected values to reveal the combo box again so that you can add more values.

Modal Dialogs

Many buttons in the Salesforce user interface open modal dialogs in the current browser window. When a modal dialog opens, everything else on the page is obscured so that your attention stays on the modal dialog’s content. Keyboard focus also stays in the modal dialog until you close it.

Close a modal dialog by using the Close button near the top of the modal or by pressing the Escape key. When you close a modal, the underlying page’s interactivity is restored, and your focus returns to the button that you used to launch that modal dialog.

In Lightning console apps, modal dialogs are limited to the tab that triggered them. So even if a modal dialog takes your keyboard focus, you can still navigate away from that tab. To start a “go to” keyboard shortcut, press Ctrl+Alt+g or Cmd+Opt+g instead of only pressing g.

Tab Sets

When you encounter a tab set in Lightning Experience, use the arrow keys to navigate between the tabs. Use the Tab key to navigate to the first focusable element in the selected tab’s panel.

Known issue: Lightning tab sets are wrapped in an application role. You can’t navigate them using the NVDA virtual cursor.

Sales Path

Opportunity workspace and Lead workspace page layouts can include the Sales Path feature, which represents the stages required for working through a sales process. Sales Path consists of stages represented with tabs that you can navigate with your arrow keys. To indicate that you’ve completed a stage, select its stage tab and use the Mark Stage as Complete button.

Tables and List Views

Salesforce displays records in tables called list views. To navigate to a list view, use the screen reader’s shortcut for moving to the next table. If a page contains more than one list view, navigate by headings rather than by using the next table shortcut to get better context.

Table column headers in list views include buttons to control the view. For example, the buttons can sort data alphabetically and adjust column width. Your screen reader might announce these buttons along with the heading text while navigating between columns in the table.

Checkboxes on Record Detail Pages

When navigating and reading record detail pages, checkboxes are presented as graphics with a description of True or False according to their status. A description of True means the box is checked, and a description of False means it isn’t checked.

When you edit a record, either by pressing the Edit button at the top of the record detail page or by pressing the Edit button next to a specific field, checkboxes become interactive controls that you select or deselect by using the space bar.

Navigation in List Views

Salesforce list views use a grid interaction pattern. To navigate, we recommend that you use the grid’s keyboard controls rather than your screen reader’s table layer. Make sure that your screen reader is in interaction mode before you use the grid interactions. When you enter the list view using your Tab key, your screen reader switches to interaction mode.

Similar to many screen readers, list view grids have two modes, navigation mode and action mode.

Navigation Mode

Navigation mode is the default mode for list views to let you quickly navigate the list view’s contents.

Navigation mode has the following keyboard functionality.

• Use arrow keys to navigate between cells.
• Press the Tab key to navigate out of the list view.
• Press the Enter key to switch to action mode. If your screen reader cursor is on a cell that contains a single interactive control, pressing Enter switches to action mode. It then performs that control’s default action. If the current cell has more than one interactive control, pressing Enter switches to action mode. Your focus is then placed on the first interactive control in the cell.

Action Mode

Many cells in a list view can have actionable content, such as links, action menus, and inline edit. Switching to action mode lets you interact with these controls.

Action mode has the following keyboard functionality.

• Use arrow keys or the Tab key to navigate between controls.
• With focus on a control, you can use any key that you normally use to activate the control. For example, use the Spacebar to select a checkbox or the Enter key to follow a link.
• Press the Escape key to switch back to navigation mode. There’s a known issue with Windows screen readers when you press Escape on a list view. The screen reader switches out of interaction mode instead of switching the list view out of action mode. To continue navigating the list view, manually switch your screen reader back to its interaction mode.