Applet or plugin focus

Silktide finds pages with embedded content, such as plugins or media objects, and asks you to confirm that a keyboard user can move in and out of them freely. Embedded content that captures the keyboard and won't let go traps the user on that part of the page.

Why this matters

Someone navigating by keyboard moves through a page with keys like Tab. If an embedded object accepts but never releases it, the rest of the page becomes unreachable - the visitor is stuck, and their only way out is to leave the page entirely. This is called a keyboard trap, and avoiding it is success criterion 2.1.2, a level A requirement. It hits keyboard-only users and users hardest.

How to fix it

This check is a prompt to test each flagged page by hand:

Using only the keyboard, Tab through the page and into the embedded content.
Confirm you can Tab (and Shift+Tab) back out again to the rest of the page.
If leaving requires a non-standard key, confirm the page tells the user which key before they enter the embedded content.
If focus gets stuck, fix or replace the embedded content - or if everything works, the finding.

How Silktide tests this

Look for embedded content in each page's : <applet>, <object>, or <embed> elements.
Flag each page that contains any, so you can verify keyboard focus can move out of the embedded content. Whether focus escapes depends on the embedded content's own behaviour, which cannot be judged automatically.

Troubleshooting

The embedded content never takes focus

If the object is purely visual (for example a decorative animation) and never receives keyboard focus, it cannot trap anyone - approve the finding.

Legacy plugin technology

<applet> and most plugin content (Java, Flash) no longer run in modern browsers at all. If a flagged element is a leftover from that era, the better fix is to remove or replace it with modern equivalents such as HTML video or .