Level A · WCAG 2.0
2.4.3 Focus Order
Focus moves in an order that preserves meaning and operability.
Partly automated Some failures are detectable, others need judgement.
How it fails in practice
Opening a dialog and leaving focus on the page behind it, so the next Tab lands somewhere invisible. A form whose fields are re-ordered by CSS but not in the DOM.
How to fix it
Move focus into a dialog when it opens and back to the trigger when it closes. Avoid positive tabindex values entirely.
At a glance
- Level
- Level A — the minimum. Failing one of these usually makes something impossible rather than merely hard.
- Principle
- Operable
- Guideline
- 2.4 Navigable
- Added in
- WCAG 2.0
- EN 301 549
- 9.2.4.3
- Automated check
- Partly automated
Partly automated
How far an automated check gets
A tool finds some failures here and cannot see the rest. A clean automated result means the checks that exist found nothing — not that the criterion is met. This is the gap that makes a green scan look like an accessible site, and it is where our agents and a human reviewer do the remaining work.
Our keyboard agent records where focus lands after each interaction, so “focus was lost after the payment dialog opened” comes with the keystroke trail.
Related criteria
Other criteria under the same guideline.
Find out which criteria your site fails
We scan up to 100 pages against WCAG 2.2 AA, run the agent protocol on one key journey and send you the report — free, once, no strings.