Why does a `click` event get triggered on my when I press Enter on it?

I'm only adding a click event handler on my <button>.

document.getElementsByTagName("button")[0].addEventListener("click", event => {

  event.preventDefault();



  console.log("Click:", event);

});

<button>Press <kbd>Enter</kbd> on me</button>

(Demo link)

Nevertheless, when I tab to the button in Firefox, then press Enter, I see the click event being fired. However, I cannot see this behaviour documented anywhere. Is this standard behaviour, and can I count on it working in all browsers?

edited 11 hours ago

Nisarg Shah

10.6k52040

asked yesterday

Vincent

1,28711629

6

Try pressing the space bar when the button is in focus...another surprise..you clicked the button :-)
– Thangadurai
yesterday

Hehe yeah I got that, left it out for brevity :)
– Vincent
yesterday

keyboard geeks don't often use the mouse. Many even use vi-like addons to their browsers so that they can surf the web without ever touching their mouse. It's very frustrated when an app don't respond to keyboard events
– phuclv
yesterday

@phuclv Blind users do everything using the keyboard. Some types of motor impairments also require keyboard access.
– Christophe Strobbe
yesterday

@ChristopheStrobbe blind doesn't only mean a complete vision lost. Many people with low eyesight do use a mouse with magnifier. And not only those, keyboard inputs are used a lot by other users. For example tab to move between form fields, and after filling them people will just press enter to submit instead of pressing the submit button with the mouse
– phuclv
yesterday

|
show 3 more comments

I'm only adding a click event handler on my <button>.

document.getElementsByTagName("button")[0].addEventListener("click", event => {

  event.preventDefault();



  console.log("Click:", event);

});

<button>Press <kbd>Enter</kbd> on me</button>

(Demo link)

edited 11 hours ago

Nisarg Shah

10.6k52040

asked yesterday

Vincent

1,28711629

6

Try pressing the space bar when the button is in focus...another surprise..you clicked the button :-)
– Thangadurai
yesterday

Hehe yeah I got that, left it out for brevity :)
– Vincent
yesterday

keyboard geeks don't often use the mouse. Many even use vi-like addons to their browsers so that they can surf the web without ever touching their mouse. It's very frustrated when an app don't respond to keyboard events
– phuclv
yesterday

@phuclv Blind users do everything using the keyboard. Some types of motor impairments also require keyboard access.
– Christophe Strobbe
yesterday

@ChristopheStrobbe blind doesn't only mean a complete vision lost. Many people with low eyesight do use a mouse with magnifier. And not only those, keyboard inputs are used a lot by other users. For example tab to move between form fields, and after filling them people will just press enter to submit instead of pressing the submit button with the mouse
– phuclv
yesterday

|
show 3 more comments

I'm only adding a click event handler on my <button>.

document.getElementsByTagName("button")[0].addEventListener("click", event => {

  event.preventDefault();



  console.log("Click:", event);

});

<button>Press <kbd>Enter</kbd> on me</button>

(Demo link)

edited 11 hours ago

Nisarg Shah

10.6k52040

asked yesterday

Vincent

1,28711629

I'm only adding a click event handler on my <button>.

document.getElementsByTagName("button")[0].addEventListener("click", event => {

  event.preventDefault();



  console.log("Click:", event);

});

<button>Press <kbd>Enter</kbd> on me</button>

(Demo link)

document.getElementsByTagName("button")[0].addEventListener("click", event => {

  event.preventDefault();



  console.log("Click:", event);

});

<button>Press <kbd>Enter</kbd> on me</button>

document.getElementsByTagName("button")[0].addEventListener("click", event => {

  event.preventDefault();



  console.log("Click:", event);

});

<button>Press <kbd>Enter</kbd> on me</button>

javascript html dom accessibility dom-events

edited 11 hours ago

Nisarg Shah

10.6k52040

asked yesterday

Vincent

1,28711629

edited 11 hours ago

Nisarg Shah

10.6k52040

asked yesterday

Vincent

1,28711629

edited 11 hours ago

Nisarg Shah

10.6k52040

edited 11 hours ago

Nisarg Shah

10.6k52040

edited 11 hours ago

Nisarg Shah

10.6k52040

asked yesterday

Vincent

1,28711629

asked yesterday

Vincent

1,28711629

asked yesterday

Vincent

1,28711629

6

Try pressing the space bar when the button is in focus...another surprise..you clicked the button :-)
– Thangadurai
yesterday

Hehe yeah I got that, left it out for brevity :)
– Vincent
yesterday

keyboard geeks don't often use the mouse. Many even use vi-like addons to their browsers so that they can surf the web without ever touching their mouse. It's very frustrated when an app don't respond to keyboard events
– phuclv
yesterday

@phuclv Blind users do everything using the keyboard. Some types of motor impairments also require keyboard access.
– Christophe Strobbe
yesterday

@ChristopheStrobbe blind doesn't only mean a complete vision lost. Many people with low eyesight do use a mouse with magnifier. And not only those, keyboard inputs are used a lot by other users. For example tab to move between form fields, and after filling them people will just press enter to submit instead of pressing the submit button with the mouse
– phuclv
yesterday

|
show 3 more comments

6

Try pressing the space bar when the button is in focus...another surprise..you clicked the button :-)
– Thangadurai
yesterday

Hehe yeah I got that, left it out for brevity :)
– Vincent
yesterday

keyboard geeks don't often use the mouse. Many even use vi-like addons to their browsers so that they can surf the web without ever touching their mouse. It's very frustrated when an app don't respond to keyboard events
– phuclv
yesterday

@phuclv Blind users do everything using the keyboard. Some types of motor impairments also require keyboard access.
– Christophe Strobbe
yesterday

@ChristopheStrobbe blind doesn't only mean a complete vision lost. Many people with low eyesight do use a mouse with magnifier. And not only those, keyboard inputs are used a lot by other users. For example tab to move between form fields, and after filling them people will just press enter to submit instead of pressing the submit button with the mouse
– phuclv
yesterday

Try pressing the space bar when the button is in focus...another surprise..you clicked the button :-)
– Thangadurai
yesterday

Hehe yeah I got that, left it out for brevity :)
– Vincent
yesterday

keyboard geeks don't often use the mouse. Many even use vi-like addons to their browsers so that they can surf the web without ever touching their mouse. It's very frustrated when an app don't respond to keyboard events
– phuclv
yesterday

@phuclv Blind users do everything using the keyboard. Some types of motor impairments also require keyboard access.
– Christophe Strobbe
yesterday

@ChristopheStrobbe blind doesn't only mean a complete vision lost. Many people with low eyesight do use a mouse with magnifier. And not only those, keyboard inputs are used a lot by other users. For example tab to move between form fields, and after filling them people will just press enter to submit instead of pressing the submit button with the mouse
– phuclv
yesterday

|
show 3 more comments

3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

This is largely because lots of authors have historically written code using click events while forgetting to account for users who don't click (whether because they prefer to use a keyboard to navigate, have a disability which makes it hard to use a pointing device, or whatever other reason).

The behaviour is documented in the HTML specification:

Certain elements in HTML have an activation behavior, which means that the user can activate them. This triggers a sequence of events dependent on the activation mechanism, and normally culminating in a click event, as described below.

…

For accessibility, the keyboard’s Enter and Space keys are often used to trigger an element’s activation behavior.

It then goes on to explain the steps in detail.

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Quentin

640k718611033

That's great, thanks for the reference - I will be relying on that for accessibility then!
– Vincent
yesterday

It's a very useful mechanism. If you plan to rely on it for accessibility, the caveat is that most elements do not have this default behaviour, so if you're using (say) a div or a span as a control, you'll have to add the key event handling yourself. (Be sure to add a role attribute too!)
– brennanyoung
yesterday

2

@brennanyoung — And make them keyboard accessible with tabindex … best to use elements designed to be interacted with in the first place!
– Quentin
yesterday

2

Quite right. You get a lot of accessibility 'for free' with <a>, <input> and <button>, but otherwise tabindex is just as important. Unfortunately, a11y implementation is far too rarely considered 'in the first place'.
– brennanyoung
yesterday

1

"This is largely because lots of authors have historically written code using click events while forgetting to account for users who don't click" No it isn't, it was always like that from the very beginning of Javascript.
– Ben
23 hours ago

|
show 1 more comment

Because for keyboard users (where a mouse is not available), when a button is in focus and you press Enter (possibly Space as well) it simulates a click event.

This is the browser's accessibility support which most, if not all, browsers provide.

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adriani6

4,35421327

1

"It's part of the ISO" — It isn't … and nobody uses ISO HTML anyway.
– Quentin
yesterday

@Quentin Removed. You're right, our workplace puts a big importance on the ISO hence the reference.
– Adriani6
yesterday

Ah sorry, I did not mean "why did they make it this way", but "why did browsers implement this - was it because it was standardised, or because they thought it was a good idea themselves". Apparently the former!
– Vincent
yesterday

@Vincent – The standard was defined after most browsers had already implemented it.
– Quentin
yesterday

I see. Well, that's great for me - saves me implementing keypress handlers myself :)
– Vincent
yesterday

add a comment |

This is documented in WCAG: SCR35: Making actions keyboard accessible by using the onclick event of anchors and buttons:

While onclick sounds like it is tied to the mouse, the onclick event is actually mapped to the default action of a link or button. The default action occurs when the user clicks the element with a mouse, but it also occurs when the user focuses the element and hits enter or space, and when the element is triggered via the accessibility API.

This is also stated in UIEVents /click section:

In addition to being associated with pointer devices, the click event type MUST be dispatched as part of an element activation, as described in §3.5 Activation triggers and behavior.

The Activation trigggers paragraph states that:

User-initiated activation triggers include clicking a mouse button on an activatable element, pressing the Enter key when an activatable element has focus, or pressing a key that is somehow linked to an activatable element (a hotkey or access key) even when that element does not have focus.

Which means that any of those triggers will dispatch the click event.

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adam

11.9k1635

Huh, that first excerpt is interesting - in an earlier test, the click event did not get triggered when I bound the listener to an anchor on which I pressed <kbd>Enter</kbd>. See e.g. here: codesandbox.io/s/4r3rl2nrz7?expanddevtools=1
– Vincent
3 hours ago

@Vincent In your example, your a anchor lacks an href attribute to make it a link. So the a tag will have no default action.
– Adam
2 hours ago

Ah, right. But then that first excerpt is, I think, about something else: clicking a button (or anchor) activates its default behaviour. Whereas the question was not about what happens when you click the button, but about why the click event is triggered when you don't click the button. (Which I think the other two excerpts show.) Anyway, thanks :)
– Vincent
2 hours ago

add a comment |

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3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

The behaviour is documented in the HTML specification:

Certain elements in HTML have an activation behavior, which means that the user can activate them. This triggers a sequence of events dependent on the activation mechanism, and normally culminating in a click event, as described below.

…

For accessibility, the keyboard’s Enter and Space keys are often used to trigger an element’s activation behavior.

It then goes on to explain the steps in detail.

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Quentin

640k718611033

That's great, thanks for the reference - I will be relying on that for accessibility then!
– Vincent
yesterday

It's a very useful mechanism. If you plan to rely on it for accessibility, the caveat is that most elements do not have this default behaviour, so if you're using (say) a div or a span as a control, you'll have to add the key event handling yourself. (Be sure to add a role attribute too!)
– brennanyoung
yesterday

2

@brennanyoung — And make them keyboard accessible with tabindex … best to use elements designed to be interacted with in the first place!
– Quentin
yesterday

2

Quite right. You get a lot of accessibility 'for free' with <a>, <input> and <button>, but otherwise tabindex is just as important. Unfortunately, a11y implementation is far too rarely considered 'in the first place'.
– brennanyoung
yesterday

1

"This is largely because lots of authors have historically written code using click events while forgetting to account for users who don't click" No it isn't, it was always like that from the very beginning of Javascript.
– Ben
23 hours ago

|
show 1 more comment

The behaviour is documented in the HTML specification:

Certain elements in HTML have an activation behavior, which means that the user can activate them. This triggers a sequence of events dependent on the activation mechanism, and normally culminating in a click event, as described below.

…

For accessibility, the keyboard’s Enter and Space keys are often used to trigger an element’s activation behavior.

It then goes on to explain the steps in detail.

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Quentin

640k718611033

That's great, thanks for the reference - I will be relying on that for accessibility then!
– Vincent
yesterday

It's a very useful mechanism. If you plan to rely on it for accessibility, the caveat is that most elements do not have this default behaviour, so if you're using (say) a div or a span as a control, you'll have to add the key event handling yourself. (Be sure to add a role attribute too!)
– brennanyoung
yesterday

2

@brennanyoung — And make them keyboard accessible with tabindex … best to use elements designed to be interacted with in the first place!
– Quentin
yesterday

2

Quite right. You get a lot of accessibility 'for free' with <a>, <input> and <button>, but otherwise tabindex is just as important. Unfortunately, a11y implementation is far too rarely considered 'in the first place'.
– brennanyoung
yesterday

1

"This is largely because lots of authors have historically written code using click events while forgetting to account for users who don't click" No it isn't, it was always like that from the very beginning of Javascript.
– Ben
23 hours ago

|
show 1 more comment

The behaviour is documented in the HTML specification:

Certain elements in HTML have an activation behavior, which means that the user can activate them. This triggers a sequence of events dependent on the activation mechanism, and normally culminating in a click event, as described below.

…

For accessibility, the keyboard’s Enter and Space keys are often used to trigger an element’s activation behavior.

It then goes on to explain the steps in detail.

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Quentin

640k718611033

The behaviour is documented in the HTML specification:

Certain elements in HTML have an activation behavior, which means that the user can activate them. This triggers a sequence of events dependent on the activation mechanism, and normally culminating in a click event, as described below.

…

For accessibility, the keyboard’s Enter and Space keys are often used to trigger an element’s activation behavior.

It then goes on to explain the steps in detail.

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Quentin

640k718611033

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

Quentin

640k718611033

answered yesterday

Quentin

640k718611033

answered yesterday

Quentin

640k718611033

That's great, thanks for the reference - I will be relying on that for accessibility then!
– Vincent
yesterday

It's a very useful mechanism. If you plan to rely on it for accessibility, the caveat is that most elements do not have this default behaviour, so if you're using (say) a div or a span as a control, you'll have to add the key event handling yourself. (Be sure to add a role attribute too!)
– brennanyoung
yesterday

2

@brennanyoung — And make them keyboard accessible with tabindex … best to use elements designed to be interacted with in the first place!
– Quentin
yesterday

2

Quite right. You get a lot of accessibility 'for free' with <a>, <input> and <button>, but otherwise tabindex is just as important. Unfortunately, a11y implementation is far too rarely considered 'in the first place'.
– brennanyoung
yesterday

1

"This is largely because lots of authors have historically written code using click events while forgetting to account for users who don't click" No it isn't, it was always like that from the very beginning of Javascript.
– Ben
23 hours ago

|
show 1 more comment

That's great, thanks for the reference - I will be relying on that for accessibility then!
– Vincent
yesterday

It's a very useful mechanism. If you plan to rely on it for accessibility, the caveat is that most elements do not have this default behaviour, so if you're using (say) a div or a span as a control, you'll have to add the key event handling yourself. (Be sure to add a role attribute too!)
– brennanyoung
yesterday

2

@brennanyoung — And make them keyboard accessible with tabindex … best to use elements designed to be interacted with in the first place!
– Quentin
yesterday

2

Quite right. You get a lot of accessibility 'for free' with <a>, <input> and <button>, but otherwise tabindex is just as important. Unfortunately, a11y implementation is far too rarely considered 'in the first place'.
– brennanyoung
yesterday

1

"This is largely because lots of authors have historically written code using click events while forgetting to account for users who don't click" No it isn't, it was always like that from the very beginning of Javascript.
– Ben
23 hours ago

That's great, thanks for the reference - I will be relying on that for accessibility then!
– Vincent
yesterday

It's a very useful mechanism. If you plan to rely on it for accessibility, the caveat is that most elements do not have this default behaviour, so if you're using (say) a div or a span as a control, you'll have to add the key event handling yourself. (Be sure to add a role attribute too!)
– brennanyoung
yesterday

@brennanyoung — And make them keyboard accessible with tabindex … best to use elements designed to be interacted with in the first place!
– Quentin
yesterday

Quite right. You get a lot of accessibility 'for free' with <a>, <input> and <button>, but otherwise tabindex is just as important. Unfortunately, a11y implementation is far too rarely considered 'in the first place'.
– brennanyoung
yesterday

"This is largely because lots of authors have historically written code using click events while forgetting to account for users who don't click" No it isn't, it was always like that from the very beginning of Javascript.
– Ben
23 hours ago

|
show 1 more comment

Because for keyboard users (where a mouse is not available), when a button is in focus and you press Enter (possibly Space as well) it simulates a click event.

This is the browser's accessibility support which most, if not all, browsers provide.

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adriani6

4,35421327

1

"It's part of the ISO" — It isn't … and nobody uses ISO HTML anyway.
– Quentin
yesterday

@Quentin Removed. You're right, our workplace puts a big importance on the ISO hence the reference.
– Adriani6
yesterday

Ah sorry, I did not mean "why did they make it this way", but "why did browsers implement this - was it because it was standardised, or because they thought it was a good idea themselves". Apparently the former!
– Vincent
yesterday

@Vincent – The standard was defined after most browsers had already implemented it.
– Quentin
yesterday

I see. Well, that's great for me - saves me implementing keypress handlers myself :)
– Vincent
yesterday

add a comment |

Because for keyboard users (where a mouse is not available), when a button is in focus and you press Enter (possibly Space as well) it simulates a click event.

This is the browser's accessibility support which most, if not all, browsers provide.

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adriani6

4,35421327

1

"It's part of the ISO" — It isn't … and nobody uses ISO HTML anyway.
– Quentin
yesterday

@Quentin Removed. You're right, our workplace puts a big importance on the ISO hence the reference.
– Adriani6
yesterday

Ah sorry, I did not mean "why did they make it this way", but "why did browsers implement this - was it because it was standardised, or because they thought it was a good idea themselves". Apparently the former!
– Vincent
yesterday

@Vincent – The standard was defined after most browsers had already implemented it.
– Quentin
yesterday

I see. Well, that's great for me - saves me implementing keypress handlers myself :)
– Vincent
yesterday

add a comment |

Because for keyboard users (where a mouse is not available), when a button is in focus and you press Enter (possibly Space as well) it simulates a click event.

This is the browser's accessibility support which most, if not all, browsers provide.

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adriani6

4,35421327

Because for keyboard users (where a mouse is not available), when a button is in focus and you press Enter (possibly Space as well) it simulates a click event.

This is the browser's accessibility support which most, if not all, browsers provide.

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adriani6

4,35421327

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adriani6

4,35421327

answered yesterday

Adriani6

4,35421327

answered yesterday

Adriani6

4,35421327

1

"It's part of the ISO" — It isn't … and nobody uses ISO HTML anyway.
– Quentin
yesterday

@Quentin Removed. You're right, our workplace puts a big importance on the ISO hence the reference.
– Adriani6
yesterday

Ah sorry, I did not mean "why did they make it this way", but "why did browsers implement this - was it because it was standardised, or because they thought it was a good idea themselves". Apparently the former!
– Vincent
yesterday

@Vincent – The standard was defined after most browsers had already implemented it.
– Quentin
yesterday

I see. Well, that's great for me - saves me implementing keypress handlers myself :)
– Vincent
yesterday

add a comment |

1

"It's part of the ISO" — It isn't … and nobody uses ISO HTML anyway.
– Quentin
yesterday

@Quentin Removed. You're right, our workplace puts a big importance on the ISO hence the reference.
– Adriani6
yesterday

Ah sorry, I did not mean "why did they make it this way", but "why did browsers implement this - was it because it was standardised, or because they thought it was a good idea themselves". Apparently the former!
– Vincent
yesterday

@Vincent – The standard was defined after most browsers had already implemented it.
– Quentin
yesterday

I see. Well, that's great for me - saves me implementing keypress handlers myself :)
– Vincent
yesterday

"It's part of the ISO" — It isn't … and nobody uses ISO HTML anyway.
– Quentin
yesterday

@Quentin Removed. You're right, our workplace puts a big importance on the ISO hence the reference.
– Adriani6
yesterday

Ah sorry, I did not mean "why did they make it this way", but "why did browsers implement this - was it because it was standardised, or because they thought it was a good idea themselves". Apparently the former!
– Vincent
yesterday

@Vincent – The standard was defined after most browsers had already implemented it.
– Quentin
yesterday

I see. Well, that's great for me - saves me implementing keypress handlers myself :)
– Vincent
yesterday

add a comment |

This is documented in WCAG: SCR35: Making actions keyboard accessible by using the onclick event of anchors and buttons:

While onclick sounds like it is tied to the mouse, the onclick event is actually mapped to the default action of a link or button. The default action occurs when the user clicks the element with a mouse, but it also occurs when the user focuses the element and hits enter or space, and when the element is triggered via the accessibility API.

This is also stated in UIEVents /click section:

In addition to being associated with pointer devices, the click event type MUST be dispatched as part of an element activation, as described in §3.5 Activation triggers and behavior.

The Activation trigggers paragraph states that:

User-initiated activation triggers include clicking a mouse button on an activatable element, pressing the Enter key when an activatable element has focus, or pressing a key that is somehow linked to an activatable element (a hotkey or access key) even when that element does not have focus.

Which means that any of those triggers will dispatch the click event.

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adam

11.9k1635

Huh, that first excerpt is interesting - in an earlier test, the click event did not get triggered when I bound the listener to an anchor on which I pressed <kbd>Enter</kbd>. See e.g. here: codesandbox.io/s/4r3rl2nrz7?expanddevtools=1
– Vincent
3 hours ago

@Vincent In your example, your a anchor lacks an href attribute to make it a link. So the a tag will have no default action.
– Adam
2 hours ago

Ah, right. But then that first excerpt is, I think, about something else: clicking a button (or anchor) activates its default behaviour. Whereas the question was not about what happens when you click the button, but about why the click event is triggered when you don't click the button. (Which I think the other two excerpts show.) Anyway, thanks :)
– Vincent
2 hours ago

add a comment |

This is documented in WCAG: SCR35: Making actions keyboard accessible by using the onclick event of anchors and buttons:

While onclick sounds like it is tied to the mouse, the onclick event is actually mapped to the default action of a link or button. The default action occurs when the user clicks the element with a mouse, but it also occurs when the user focuses the element and hits enter or space, and when the element is triggered via the accessibility API.

This is also stated in UIEVents /click section:

In addition to being associated with pointer devices, the click event type MUST be dispatched as part of an element activation, as described in §3.5 Activation triggers and behavior.

The Activation trigggers paragraph states that:

User-initiated activation triggers include clicking a mouse button on an activatable element, pressing the Enter key when an activatable element has focus, or pressing a key that is somehow linked to an activatable element (a hotkey or access key) even when that element does not have focus.

Which means that any of those triggers will dispatch the click event.

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adam

11.9k1635

Huh, that first excerpt is interesting - in an earlier test, the click event did not get triggered when I bound the listener to an anchor on which I pressed <kbd>Enter</kbd>. See e.g. here: codesandbox.io/s/4r3rl2nrz7?expanddevtools=1
– Vincent
3 hours ago

@Vincent In your example, your a anchor lacks an href attribute to make it a link. So the a tag will have no default action.
– Adam
2 hours ago

Ah, right. But then that first excerpt is, I think, about something else: clicking a button (or anchor) activates its default behaviour. Whereas the question was not about what happens when you click the button, but about why the click event is triggered when you don't click the button. (Which I think the other two excerpts show.) Anyway, thanks :)
– Vincent
2 hours ago

add a comment |

This is documented in WCAG: SCR35: Making actions keyboard accessible by using the onclick event of anchors and buttons:

While onclick sounds like it is tied to the mouse, the onclick event is actually mapped to the default action of a link or button. The default action occurs when the user clicks the element with a mouse, but it also occurs when the user focuses the element and hits enter or space, and when the element is triggered via the accessibility API.

This is also stated in UIEVents /click section:

In addition to being associated with pointer devices, the click event type MUST be dispatched as part of an element activation, as described in §3.5 Activation triggers and behavior.

The Activation trigggers paragraph states that:

User-initiated activation triggers include clicking a mouse button on an activatable element, pressing the Enter key when an activatable element has focus, or pressing a key that is somehow linked to an activatable element (a hotkey or access key) even when that element does not have focus.

Which means that any of those triggers will dispatch the click event.

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adam

11.9k1635

This is documented in WCAG: SCR35: Making actions keyboard accessible by using the onclick event of anchors and buttons:

While onclick sounds like it is tied to the mouse, the onclick event is actually mapped to the default action of a link or button. The default action occurs when the user clicks the element with a mouse, but it also occurs when the user focuses the element and hits enter or space, and when the element is triggered via the accessibility API.

This is also stated in UIEVents /click section:

In addition to being associated with pointer devices, the click event type MUST be dispatched as part of an element activation, as described in §3.5 Activation triggers and behavior.

The Activation trigggers paragraph states that:

User-initiated activation triggers include clicking a mouse button on an activatable element, pressing the Enter key when an activatable element has focus, or pressing a key that is somehow linked to an activatable element (a hotkey or access key) even when that element does not have focus.

Which means that any of those triggers will dispatch the click event.

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adam

11.9k1635

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

edited 23 hours ago

Peter Mortensen

13.5k1983111

answered yesterday

Adam

11.9k1635

answered yesterday

Adam

11.9k1635

answered yesterday

Adam

11.9k1635

Huh, that first excerpt is interesting - in an earlier test, the click event did not get triggered when I bound the listener to an anchor on which I pressed <kbd>Enter</kbd>. See e.g. here: codesandbox.io/s/4r3rl2nrz7?expanddevtools=1
– Vincent
3 hours ago

@Vincent In your example, your a anchor lacks an href attribute to make it a link. So the a tag will have no default action.
– Adam
2 hours ago

Ah, right. But then that first excerpt is, I think, about something else: clicking a button (or anchor) activates its default behaviour. Whereas the question was not about what happens when you click the button, but about why the click event is triggered when you don't click the button. (Which I think the other two excerpts show.) Anyway, thanks :)
– Vincent
2 hours ago

add a comment |

Huh, that first excerpt is interesting - in an earlier test, the click event did not get triggered when I bound the listener to an anchor on which I pressed <kbd>Enter</kbd>. See e.g. here: codesandbox.io/s/4r3rl2nrz7?expanddevtools=1
– Vincent
3 hours ago

@Vincent In your example, your a anchor lacks an href attribute to make it a link. So the a tag will have no default action.
– Adam
2 hours ago

Ah, right. But then that first excerpt is, I think, about something else: clicking a button (or anchor) activates its default behaviour. Whereas the question was not about what happens when you click the button, but about why the click event is triggered when you don't click the button. (Which I think the other two excerpts show.) Anyway, thanks :)
– Vincent
2 hours ago

Huh, that first excerpt is interesting - in an earlier test, the click event did not get triggered when I bound the listener to an anchor on which I pressed <kbd>Enter</kbd>. See e.g. here: codesandbox.io/s/4r3rl2nrz7?expanddevtools=1
– Vincent
3 hours ago

@Vincent In your example, your a anchor lacks an href attribute to make it a link. So the a tag will have no default action.
– Adam
2 hours ago

Ah, right. But then that first excerpt is, I think, about something else: clicking a button (or anchor) activates its default behaviour. Whereas the question was not about what happens when you click the button, but about why the click event is triggered when you don't click the button. (Which I think the other two excerpts show.) Anyway, thanks :)
– Vincent
2 hours ago

add a comment |

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