Keyboard Navigation and Accessibility Features in My Identity Application

My Identity is designed to be fully usable without a mouse. All primary workflows — reviewing your profile, managing access, searching for people, and completing forms — are reachable and operable using keyboard alone. The application also supports screen readers and other assistive technologies through semantic markup, labeled controls, live region announcements, and managed focus throughout the interface.

This article describes the keyboard interactions available in each area of My Identity and documents known limitations in the current release.

Visual Accessibility

My Identity includes the following visual accessibility improvements across the interface:

Color contrast — The default blue and gray values used throughout the application have been updated to improve contrast, targeting a minimum ratio of 3:1 against adjacent surfaces and 4.5:1 for text. This applies to labels, table headers, search fields, and form controls.
Focus indicators — Every interactive control displays a visible focus outline when it receives keyboard focus. In areas with dense layouts or scrolling containers, focus rings are inset to prevent them from being clipped by surrounding content.

Global Keyboard Conventions

The following keys apply across My Identity regardless of which area you are working in.

Key	Behavior

Key	Behavior
Tab	Moves focus forward through interactive controls in the current view.
Shift+Tab	Moves focus backward through interactive controls.
Enter	Activates buttons, menu items, and most custom controls.
Space	Activates many of the same controls as Enter. Where a control responds only to Enter, this is noted in the area-specific sections below.
Arrow keys	Navigate within composite controls: trees, tab strips, and list-based pickers.
Escape	Closes open menus and dialogs where supported.

Screen Reader Support

My Identity exposes semantic information to screen readers throughout the interface:

Announced state changes — Controls that expand, collapse, or change selection announce their updated state. The filter panel toggle announces whether filters are shown or hidden. Advanced search panels announce when they become active.
Hidden inactive content — Inactive tab panels and collapsed panels are removed from the accessibility tree, so screen readers do not announce content that is not visible. On mobile layouts, content hidden behind filter overlays is also removed from the accessibility tree.
Labeled controls — Icon-only controls carry descriptive labels. Disabled controls are marked as inactive so they are not announced as operable.
Live regions — Asynchronous content updates, such as search results loading or list content refreshing, are announced without interrupting the user's current position.
Form errors — Validation errors are associated with their fields so screen readers announce the error alongside the relevant input when focus reaches it.

Navigation and Application Chrome

Control	Keyboard behavior

Control	Keyboard behavior
Sub-header tabs	Tab to the tab strip; use Arrow keys to move between tabs. Only one tab holds Tab-stop focus at a time; the first tab in the strip is always the entry point when tabbing into the strip.
Account menu	Tab to the profile control and press Enter to open; use Arrow keys to navigate items; Escape closes the menu and returns focus to the profile control.
Scroll to top button	Reachable by Tab; labeled for assistive technologies.
Mobile menu button	Reachable by Tab; labeled for assistive technologies.

Manage Access

Control	Keyboard behavior

Control	Keyboard behavior
Manage Access tabs	Each tab is reachable by Tab; Enter or Space switches tabs.
Advanced search panel	Tab to the Show/Hide control; Enter or Space expands or collapses the panel. The control announces its expanded state. Inactive panels are removed from the tab order so focus stays within visible content.

Filters

Control	Keyboard behavior

Control	Keyboard behavior
Collapsible filter panel toggle	Reachable by Tab; Enter or Space shows or hides the filter panel. The control announces its current state.
Filter chips	Reachable by Tab; Enter or Space activates or removes a chip where those actions are available.

Trees and Hierarchical Pickers

My Identity includes two tree implementations, both fully keyboard-navigable.

Standard tree (used in most areas)

Key	Behavior

Key	Behavior
Arrow keys	Move focus between visible nodes. The active node scrolls into view automatically.
Enter or Space	Selects the currently focused node.

Explorer tree (used in folder and location pickers)

Key	Behavior

Key	Behavior
ArrowDown / ArrowUp	Move focus to the next or previous visible node.
ArrowRight	Expands a collapsed folder node; moves focus to the first child if the node is already expanded.
ArrowLeft	Collapses an expanded folder node.
Enter or Space	Selects the focused node.

People Search

Control	Keyboard behavior

Control	Keyboard behavior
Inline autocomplete	Use Arrow keys to move through suggestions; Enter selects the focused result.
Advanced People Finder launcher (grid icon)	Reachable by Tab; press Enter to open the finder dialog. Space is not supported on this control.
Advanced People Finder dialog — results list	The results list has a listbox role. ArrowDown / ArrowUp move through results, wrapping at the top and bottom. Enter or Space selects the focused result. Escape closes the dialog.

Forms and Validation

Form controls throughout My Identity follow these conventions:

Every input has an associated label that screen readers announce when the field receives focus.
Validation errors are linked to their fields so screen readers announce the error alongside the relevant input.
Required fields are indicated both visually and programmatically.
Errors are surfaced as text, not by color alone.
Placeholder text is not used as a substitute for a label.

Modals and Overlays

Dialogs in My Identity are labeled with a title and, where applicable, a description that screen readers announce when the dialog opens. Focus is trapped within an open dialog so keyboard users cannot navigate behind it. When a dialog closes, focus returns to the control that opened it. Close controls within dialogs are labeled for assistive technologies.

Notifications

Transient notifications do not steal keyboard focus. Critical errors that require attention are also surfaced as persistent text on the page or within a dialog, not as transient messages alone.

Known Limitations

The following limitations are documented in the current release:

Advanced People Finder launcher — Responds to Enter only. Space does not open the finder on this control.
Inconsistent Enter / Space support — Not every custom control responds to both Enter and Space. Prefer Enter when Space does not produce the expected result.
Programmatic focus indicators — When focus is moved in code (for example, when switching tabs), browsers do not always apply the focus-visible style automatically. My Identity compensates for this in most areas, but behavior may vary in some contexts.
Reduced motion — There is no global reduced-motion setting in the current release. Users who require reduced motion should configure their operating system accessibility settings; the browser will honor those settings for most animations.