Stuck in search field in system preferences

Background and problem description
After a soda incident on the trackpad I can no longer use its click function. I can however use it to "dab-click" when this is enabled in system preferences.
This is not the problem since I've now learned how to work with just the dab-click. The problem arises when every now and then my system preferences and the "enable dab click option" are forgotten by the mac (i do not know why, maybe when Its turned off the wrong way). This means i can not use the trackpad to do mouse clicks. Well up until recently I had learned a way how to navigate to the system preferences by open up the main meny (Ctrl + F2) and navigate with the keyboard to the enable dab-click option and activate it.
But now I can't find a way to do this because when I go into system preferences I get stuck in the search field and I can't tab my way out of it to cycle through the content outside of the search field.
So for the moment I have found no way of activating the "dab-click" option without plugging in an external usb mouse, but since this problem arises every now and then I find this quite annoying work.
Can someone please help me find a way to activate the "dab-click" option in system preferences without using the trackpad to do so?

Hi,
If this spool is being generated internal to your program, then sy-spono should have the value.
Regards,
Lijo Joseph

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