Canvas accessibility

Canvas is a tool designed to make collaboration easier for everyone. Read on to learn more about the user experience for keyboard-only and assistive technology users.

Tip: Slack offers keyboard shortcuts for many common actions you may need to take. To view all keyboard shortcuts, press ⌘+/ (Mac) or Ctrl+/ (Windows/Linux).

Keyboard navigation

Like the rest of Slack, you can navigate between sections by pressing F6, or with Cmd + Ctrl + Left / Right arrow keys. Use these keys to move focus between the canvas area, the editing toolbars, and the canvas actions toolbar.

The following keyboard navigation features used throughout the rest of Slack are also supported when working in canvases:

Mac

Windows/Linux

Formatting keyboard shortcuts	All of Slack's keyboard navigation features are supported in canvas. For a complete list, visit keyboard shortcuts.
Operate links, mentions and attachments	Move your cursor inside any link, mention or attachment in a canvas, then press Cmd + Enter
Navigate embedded objects	Move your text cursor into embedded objects, then press Cmd + Enter
Use section-level actions	Control + M*
Leave a comment or read existing comments	Cmd + Opt + T

* Full Keyboard Access must be enabled

Formatting keyboard shortcuts	All of Slack's keyboard navigation features are supported in canvas. For a complete list, visit keyboard shortcuts.
Operate links, mentions and attachments	Move your cursor inside any link, mention or attachment in a canvas, then press Ctrl + Enter
Navigate embedded objects	Move your text cursor into embedded objects, then press Ctrl + Enter
Use section-level actions	Shift + F10
Leave a comment or read existing comments	Ctrl + Alt + T

Screen reader support

Desktop

Mobile

Canvases work best with VoiceOver on Mac and NVDA on Windows. For the best experience, try the following tips:

• Turn on Reader View
  Use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Option + R (Mac), Ctrl + R (Safari-only) or Ctrl + Alt + R (Windows).
• Add image descriptions
  Like all images uploaded to Slack, you can add an image description that can be read by a screen reader.
• Find and read comments
  Navigate to the  More Actions menu and choose View all comments. This will let you navigate all comments in the canvas using the Up or Down arrow keys. Tab to Open in canvas to move focus back to the content in the canvas area.
  
  While navigating through the canvas, sections that contain comments will be announced. Use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Option + T (Mac) or Ctrl+ Alt + T (Windows) to open the comment thread.
• Open canvases in conversations
  All your conversations in Slack include a built-in canvas. To find a channel or direct message's (DM) canvas, navigate to the primary view toolbar of the conversation and find the  Open channel canvas button.

You can read Slack canvases with a screen reader on your mobile device, but there may be some bumps in the experience. If you’re editing a canvas on mobile, we strongly recommend using a Bluetooth keyboard. This is an area we are actively working to improve.

Note: If you have feedback on either the keyboard navigation or screen reader experience, feel free to contact us.