Detecting the Escape key is essential for implementing intuitive UI interactions like closing modals, canceling operations, and providing exit paths in web applications. As the creator of CoreUI with over 25 years of web development experience, I’ve implemented Escape key detection in countless modal dialogs and overlay components. The most reliable approach is using the keydown event listener and checking for event.key === 'Escape'. This method provides consistent behavior across all modern browsers and follows accessibility best practices.

Creating accessible modal dialogs is essential for user interactions like confirmations, forms, and content overlays in React applications. As the creator of CoreUI with over 25 years of development experience, I’ve built countless modal components for enterprise applications. The most effective approach is using React portals to render the modal outside the component tree with proper focus management. This ensures the modal appears above other content and maintains accessibility standards.