Review the consultation-request form with a keyboard

The operational decision

Find interaction barriers before visitors need to submit an inquiry. Intake communication should make the available choices understandable without requiring a particular reading style, device or input method. Operational accessibility work can be tested with fictional inquiries and public information.

Prepare the workflow

Move through labels, fields, errors and submission controls using the keyboard; check focus visibility and recovery from an invalid field.

Example wording for approval

“The example form should allow a visitor to review instructions, enter permitted details, correct an error and reach the submit control without using a mouse.”

Worked example

A fictional validation popup covers the consultation-request form and captures focus, but its close control is not keyboard reachable. Reproduce the problem from a fresh page and record the steps. After fixing it, test error recovery and submission using the keyboard alone. Confirm that focus returns to the relevant field rather than the page top. The acceptance result should demonstrate the complete task, not merely that individual form controls can receive focus when no error occurs.

Handoff record

Record these task-specific fields: control order, focus behavior, error path, reviewer.

Acceptance check

Trigger a fictional validation error and continue with the keyboard. Focus should remain understandable, and the visitor must not be trapped in an overlay.

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