This website has been tested with the NVDA screen reader in FireFox and Chrome due to its open source availability, browser compatibility, and ARIA support. Note that browser and screen reader updates can change the way pages are read.
Navigate ACL.gov menus without a mouse
Top Menu
- Use the TAB key to access the primary menu navigation links (Program Areas, Grants, Aging & Disability in America, Newsroom, and About ACL)
- Use the LEFT / RIGHT arrow keys to navigate back and forth through the primary menus when using keyboard only without a screen reader
- When using the keyboard with NVDA screen reader: put the screen reader in focus mode (Insert + Spacebar) and use the LEFT / RIGHT arrow keys to navigate back and forth through the primary menus
- Each primary menu (except for Program Areas) has a sub-menu underneath it. To access the sub-menus:
- From a primary menu, press the TAB key to expand its sub-menu
- Once inside a sub-menu, use either the TAB key or UP / DOWN arrow keys to navigate within the sub-menu. Do not use the left-right arrow keys to navigate within a sub-menu
- Press the ESC key to collapse a sub-menu
- Press the ENTER key to go to any primary or sub-menu page
- Pressing the ENTER key on a primary menu link will take you to the landing page for that area
Left Side Menu (Tree)
- Use the TAB key to access the left navigation menu tree
- Pressing the ENTER key on a top-level menu item (denoted by a + sign) will take you to that page
- On menu items with a sub-menu (denoted by a + sign), use the RIGHT arrow key to expand a sub-menu and the LEFT arrow key to collapse a sub-menu
- Use the UP / DOWN arrow keys to navigate through left navigation menu items
Accordion Navigation (Expand/Collapse Content)
Accordions are found in the main text content of some pages, and contain expandable and collapsible content.
- Use the TAB key to access accordions
- To expand an accordion:
- Press the ENTER key. The content within the accordion expands
- To collapse an accordion:
- If the content within an accordion is already expanded, press the ENTER again to collapse it
- Either TAB (forward) or shift-TAB (backwards) to navigate through accordions, and press the ENTER key to expand and collapse them