Who says design needs a mouse?

For millions, navigating digital tools with a keyboard isn’t just about preference for speed and ergonomics—it’s a fundamental need. As part of our ongoing effort to make Figma more accessible to all, we’ve been collecting feedback from designers who rely on the keyboard and screen reader as their primary means for navigation. Close collaboration with these designers, including a group of alpha users, has directly informed our new keyboard accessibility features.

We’re introducing a series of new features that remove barriers for keyboard-only designers across most Figma products. Users can now pan the canvas, insert objects, and make precise selections quickly and easily. And, with improved screen reader support, these actions are read aloud as users work, making it easier to stay oriented.

Stay in the flow, no mouse required

Until now, it was difficult to move between frames, select components, or add new elements using only a keyboard. This often led to issues like getting stuck at the top of the canvas, zooming into the wrong area, or ending up on the wrong page.

With improvements to high-impact actions like panning, insertion, and selection, we hope to solve these crucial pain points for keyboard-only designers and make it easier for them to fully contribute to design sprints, co-creation sessions, and critiques. These new controls complement Figma's existing keyboard shortcuts to enable end-to-end mouse-free design. Now, as one alpha user put it, “there’s almost nothing that would be a blocker for keyboard-only users to be able to contribute to the design process [in Figma].”

Here’s what’s changing.

Panning

Now, you can navigate the canvas using arrow keys. Use the Shift key to move or scroll faster, or utilize new keyboard shortcuts to zoom with finer control and access the move and hand tools.

Placement

It's now possible to insert most object types like shapes and text onto the canvas using only the keyboard. For example, insert frames using keyboard shortcuts and a crosshair-guided view, or press Enter to place text in the center of your screen.

Selection

The new keyboard box selection tool allows you to choose objects on the canvas using your keyboard. You can move objects one-by-one by using the arrow keys to position the pink cursor over an object and pressing Enter to select it. You can also select multiple items by using a selection box.

A more inclusive design experience

These new features go beyond making Figma easier to navigate, they allow more people to participate in the creative process. Beyond these updates, we’ve been introducing tools that enable teams to create more accessible and inclusive products using Figma. For example, the contrast checker in the color picker gives designers the ability to verify that colors for text and graphics meet the standards of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and the option to select semantic HTML tags in designs allows teams to create products that support screen readers.

Accessibility isn’t a box to check, it’s a commitment to creating tools and experiences that work for everyone. We’re continuously learning from our users and making focused accessibility improvements to remove barriers in Figma for all designers.

Learn how to use these new features and get your questions answered—including how to enable screen reader support—at the help center.