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Have you actually tried using Slack App without a mouse or a trackpad? I mean when I said "impossible" I didn't mean literally. Keyboard driven workflows are meant for fast, precise actions that are suitable for situations where you can rely on muscle memory. That's why POS terminals usually built with a keyboard focused interface. Can you imagine a cashier, holding a whole line because it takes her several minutes to undo a transaction, because she tapped/clicked with a mouse on a wrong item?

SlackApp, unfortunately doesn't allow you to be efficient, because it's not meant to be used without a mouse. Telling that it is, because you can press <Tab> multiple times and get where you want to be - isn't a solution. First, it is inconsistent - number of times you need to press <Tab> varies from the context you are in. And because of that it is not only inefficient, but it is also limiting for people who have no choice but to stick to using keyboard. And for people with disabilities it's pretty much literally impossible.

1 comments

>Have you actually tried using Slack App without a mouse or a trackpad?

Yes, I tried before I wrote my comment :) My experience informed everything I said.

>SlackApp, unfortunately doesn't allow you to be efficient, because it's not meant to be used without a mouse.

I don't disagree it's probably primarily built with mouse users in mind. But nobody here is concretely discussing what Slack (and by extension, all web apps) can do to make their applications more accessible.

>First, it is inconsistent - number of times you need to press <Tab> varies from the context you are in.

Surely this applies to every application? The number of tabs it takes to get to the address bar in my browser varies based on the current element that has focus. Same for my word processor. How is this supposed to work?

In browsers you can install extensions that can help to navigate efficiently, but Slack App is not extensible that way. The purpose of the app is to allow an efficient exchange of textual information. Not being able to quickly jump to any thread using keyboard - defeats the sole purpose of the app.

Can you imagine to have a code editor that doesn't allow you to change its color scheme? Some may say: "it's not important", but for many people something like that would be a deal breaker. Fortunately we have many IDEs or editors to choose from, but we can't opt out of the Slack app - if the company is using it, you stuck with it.