How would screen reader users use spatial navigation?

[Malvoz]

In browse mode (which I believe is default in all/most screen readers, at least in NVDA) the arrow keys are used to read text in a certain direction. I don't know if the typical screen reader user knows how and when to switch between the different modes but it's currently not possible to navigate the demo pages using the arrow keys in browse mode.

Of course, a screen reader user may not even need to navigate documents this way...

[jihyerish]

You can switch the keys instead of arrow keys using window.navigate() API for spatial navigation.
The corresponding demo is :
https://wicg.github.io/spatial-navigation/demo/#navigate

[Malvoz]

Okay, to try to make a long story short, the Maps for HTML Community Group's goal is more or less: declarative maps for the web, and I think we're envisioning panning to be controlled using arrow keys. The current situation in popular web map tools is that none of them are pannable without switching from browse mode, which I think is problematic (how do users know to switch mode?). But I suppose because arrow keys (with potential modifier keys) for standard per-element panning (and spatial navigation) would be UA-defined there'd be no need for switching keys using window.navigate() to enable these types of navigation (without switching from browse mode) as screen readers would have predefined and configurable modifiers. Although it'd be nice if the default didn't require modifier keys as I think arrow keys alone is more intuitive, but reading w3c/csswg-drafts#5683 I learned that specs can't put such requirements on browser interfaces.

Thanks @jihyerish.

[jihyerish]

@Malvoz yes, I aware of Maps for HTML Community Group and tried to combine the concept of it with Spatial navigation.
But I came up with the conclusion that the final goals of them are quite different. (The main use cases of the spec are different).
Thank you for your interest and input! It was interesting for me to look at the progress on Maps for HTML thanks to you!