Tabs Component Keyboard Behaviour

[cmuncharaz]

The results page includes a tabs component to show the list of errors, warnings, notices, and ignored rules. In the current implementation, each tab is focused pressing the TAB key.

This is not the expected keyboard behaviour according to the tabs design pattern described in the WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices. The WAI-ARIA guide recommends to move focus between tabs using the arrow keys.

However, there are some opinions against this recommended behaviour and to support the current implementation on Pa11y Dashboard. Paul J. Adam wrote a post on ARIA Tab Panel Accessibility, published in the Deque blog. Paul thinks that most users would expect tabs to be TABable.

Should the tabs component on Pa11y Dashboard adhere to the recommended behaviour described by the WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices? Is it okay to keep TABable tabs?

[Leddfoot]

Is it possible to have both? That would satisfy both opposing views.