Safari tabbing focus doesn't work in 5.1.2

Question

When I keep pressing tab key, it only focuses through the form elements (like input, button) but not through anchor tags.

It was working fine in ver 5.0.5. This behavior is noticed in latest version 5.1.2.

Solution 1

If you go under the advanced preferences in Safari and check "Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage" it works.

Solution 2

There are two ways for a user to fix this.

1. The main fix for this is to adjust the Accessibility options. Apple Menu > System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts Tab > Full keyboard access: In windows and dialogs, press Tab to move the keyboard focus between: Choose the "All controls" radio button. This allows Safari, as well as other applications, to gain tab focus on buttons and other UI elements.

2. Additionally, you can adjust this in Safari's advanced preferences as noted in j08691's answer.

Comments

[jakub.g]

Yep I've been testing some stuff recently under Safari 5.1.5 (WinXP) recently and when you have elements with tabindex="0", all the elements EXCEPT links (<a> with "href" defined) are focusable. By all elements, I mean <span>s, <div>s etc. It's absolutely amazing for me from the accessibility point of view!

[Chetan]

Thank you, it works... But isn't that an accessibility issue not allowing users to access links through keyboard automatically without updating the settings :? Not sure whats the idea of safari behind this behaviour.

[duyn9uyen]

Why isn't this option be enabled by default?

[Joseph K.]

Bump, 4 years later and still it isn't enabled by default, what's the reasoning behind it?

[Broda Noel]

I can't believe this is not enabled by default. One more facepalm for Safari

[Roobot]

@JosephK.: I believe the reason is so it matches the way the MacOS works by default across all applications. You can also press Option + Tab to include links while tabbing. I don't find it intuitive either, but it is what it is.