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The keyboard grammar

27 keys

Every key the Authoring Practices bind, and every pattern that binds it.

The finding. Arrow Down, Arrow Up and Enter are each bound by thirteen patterns; Home and End by eleven. Space and Enter do not activate the same things, which is where the confusion comes from — the specification itself is inconsistent.

How widely bound

Arrow Down 13/30
Arrow Up 13/30
Enter 13/30
Shift 12/30
Arrow Left 11/30
Arrow Right 11/30
End 11/30
Home 11/30
Space 11/30
Tab 11/30
Control 5/30
Escape 5/30
Page Down 5/30
Page Up 5/30
A 3/30
Alt 3/30
F10 3/30
Delete 2/30
Left arrow 2/30
Right arrow 2/30
* 1/30
Backspace 1/30
F2 1/30
F6 1/30
U 1/30
alt 1/30
control 1/30

Source. ARIA Authoring Practices, keyboard interaction sections · W3C Document Licence · retrieved 2026-07-31. This collection is derived.