What to change
Ask your supplier to make suggested search matches clearly navigable and selectable without a mouse, with an understandable way to dismiss them and keep typing.
A worked example
Illustrative example
A visitor types part of a service name, moves through suggested matches and deliberately activates the intended one without reaching for a mouse.
Why this matters to your practice
Search suggestions can shorten the route to a service, provided everyone can choose them. Ask your supplier to demonstrate typing a partial service name, moving through its suggestions and selecting one without a mouse. The visitor should also be able to dismiss the suggestions and keep editing. Merely moving past an option should not unexpectedly open it. Use service names from your actual website, including similar names, so the review tests whether people can recognise the intended destination.
A practical review example
A visitor types part of a service name and receives several similar suggestions. Ask your supplier to explore the list using the keyboard and spoken feedback, then choose one deliberately. The highlighted suggestion should be distinguishable from the typed words. Return and dismiss the suggestions without selecting anything. The query should remain editable and the website should not navigate merely because an option was explored. Review the chosen interaction as a whole, rather than treating a long sequence of Tab presses as proof of a predictable suggestion control.
How to check the result
Accept when suggestions can be explored, chosen and dismissed through keyboard and accessibility tools with the same destinations available to pointer users.
A mistake to avoid
A list that happens to be reachable by repeated Tab presses may still lack the predictable behaviour expected from its chosen control pattern.
Turn reading into a next step
Your action checklist
Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.
Record what you know, what is still missing and the answer you need from your team or supplier.
Use project decisions only, without personal, patient or confidential details. Entries stay in this page and are not submitted to Kay & Co. Copy or download before leaving; this page does not save your notes.
Further reading
These sources provide background for the topic. The practice examples and checklist are illustrative planning suggestions from Kay & Co.
Related guides
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