SkipOnTab versus tabindex

SkipOnTab does not rely on setting tabindex on elements - it uses javascript events instead. Having some experience in trying to use and maintain a site using tabindex, I would not use it again.

Drawbacks when using tabindex

• It must be used consistently throughout:
• The entire form or you'll confuse the users. Focus might end up somewhere unexpected in the form, or drop out of the form all toghether, when an element is missing a tabindex.
• All forms in the entire page in order to avoid unexpected orders. This includes site-wide header and footer.
• Any re-used page components. Tabindex ranges cannot overlap, nor can they be used in different orders on different pages without re-calculating tabindex (perhaps by using a base value per component instance).
• Setting and keeping track of tabindex, be it statically or dynamically, can become a hassle when inserting/showing a new focusable element or the page layout is changed.
• An element skipped with tabindex cannot be reached by tabbing without
• Tabbing through the reset of the form (if it has a tabindex just higher than the tabindex of the last focusable element in the form).
• Tabbing through all the menus (since they are usually at the top, before the form) and links on the page.
• Even the new HTML5 standard allows for inconsistency, favoring platform conventions. The tab order for an undefined tabindex or an unparseable tabindex or tabindex="0" can change between platforms; the user agent "should follow platform conventions". If the tabindex greater than 0, it will be in sequential focus navigation order with the note that the rules "do not give a precise ordering".

Getting and setting tabindex doesn't act consistently across browsers, but the Keyboard Accessibility Plugin should help with that and a lot of other useful things.

Note that the specification for tabindex and tabbing navigation changed between HTML4 tabbing navigation and HTML5 sequential focus navigation.

Advantages when using SkipOnTab

• SkipOnTab (using EmulateTab) always works in the predictable tree order.
• It has improved usability over using tabindex="-1", as skipped elements can always be reached with shift-tab. Unless using a non-standard mode of input (as given by an example defined in the HTML5 standard), browsers do not allow elements to be reached by keyboard.^{citation needed}

Drawbacks when using SkipOnTab

• It requires javascript enabled browsers.
• It requires jQuery.
• It only moves to the next non-skipped focusable element in the form/page, not to a specific element in a different part of the form/page.

SkipOnTab is fully dynamic in the way it detects and moves focus.