Keyboard Standards
Consistency in the layout of keypads is essential for blind users and highly desirable for other users. It is also important to set out the keys in a way that makes it easy to distinguish between the main numerical keys and other function keys. Variation in the size, shape and position of function keys will help differentiation.
Use the links below to navigate to:
- International keyboard standards
- European keyboard standards
- National keyboard standards in Europe (alphabetical by country)
International Standards
InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS)
INCITS Secretariat c/o Information Technology Industry Council, 1250 Eye
Street NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005, USA.
Tel: +1 202 737 8888; Fax: +1 202 638 4922
Email: incits@itic.org; Web: www.incits.org
Committees and Working Groups:
V1 - Text Processing: Office and Publishing Systems Interface
Chairman: Patrick Durusau
V1 is the U.S. TAG to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 and provides recommendations on U.S. positions to the JTC 1 TAG.
- INCITS 154 (1988) Office machines and supplies - Alphanumeric machines - Keyboard arrangement (formerly ANSI X3 154 (1988) (R1999))
International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
1, Ch. de la Voie-Creuse, Case postale 56, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland.
Tel: +41 22 749 0111; Fax: +41 22 733 3430
Web www.iso.ch
Committees and Working Groups:
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC 35/WG 1 - Keyboards and Input Interfaces
- ISO/IEC 15411 (1999) Information technology - Segmented keyboard layouts
- ISO/IEC 15412 (1999) Information technology - Portable keyboard layouts
- ISO/IEC 9995 (1994-2006) Information technology - Keyboard layouts for text and office systems - Parts 1-8
- ISO/IEC FCD 24757 Information Technology - Keyboard interaction model - Machine-readable keyboard description
- ISO/IEC TR 15440 (2005) Information Technology - Future keyboards and other associated input devices and related entry methods
ISO/TC 159/SC 4/WG 8 - Ergonomic Design of Control Centres
- ISO 9241-4 (1998) Ergonomic requirements for visual display terminals - Part 4: Keyboard requirements
European Standards
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
650 Route des Lucioles, F-06921 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France.
Tel: +33 4 92 94 42 00; Fax: +33 4 93 65 47 16
Email: helpdesk@etsi.org; Web: www.etsi.org
Committees and Working Groups:
TCHF - Technical Committee on Human Factors
Chairman: Stephen Furner
- ETSI ES 201 381 (1998) Human Factors: Telecommunication - Keypads and keyboards - tactile identifiers
- ETSI ETR 345 (1997) Human Factors (HF); Characteristics of telephone keypads and keyboards; Requirements of elderly and disabled people
- ETSI TCR-TR 023 (1994) Human Factors (HF); Assignments of alphabetic letters to digits on push button dialling keypads
National Standards in Europe
Germany
Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardization)
Burggrafenstrasse 6, 10787 Berlin,
Germany.
Tel: +49 30 2601 0; Fax: +49 30 2601 1231
Email: postmaster@din.de; Web: www2.din.de
Committees and Working Groups:
NA 043 - Information Technology and Selected IT Applications
Contact: Dr. Stefan Weisgerber
- DIN 2137 (2003) Text and office systems - Keyboards - German keyboard for data and text processing, as well as for typewriters, information on graphic characters or symbols
Lithuania
Lithuanian Standards Board
T. Kosciuskos g.30., LT-01100 Vilnius, Lithuania.
Tel: +370 5 212 62 52; Fax: +370 5 212 62 52
Email: lstboard@lsd.lt; Web: alpha.lsd.lt/en
Committees and Working Groups:
TK 4 - Information Technology
Chairman: G. Kulvietis
Secretary: R. Kazlauskas
- LST 1582 (2000) Information technology. Lithuanian computer keyboard. Layout of characters
United Kingdom
British Standards Institute (BSI)
389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL, United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 20 8996 9000; Fax: +44 20 8996 7001
Email: cservices@bsi-global.com; Web: www.bsi-global.com
Committees and Working Groups:
ICT/-/1 - Information System Coordination
- BS 4822 (1994) Specification for keyboard allocation of graphic characters for data processing. Obsolete.