Level A · WCAG 2.0
3.2.1 On Focus
Moving focus to a component does not change the context by itself.
Partly automated Some failures are detectable, others need judgement.
How it fails in practice
A select that submits the form as soon as it receives focus, so a keyboard user can never reach the option below the first.
How to fix it
Act on an explicit choice — a change committed, a button pressed — never on focus arriving.
At a glance
- Level
- Level A — the minimum. Failing one of these usually makes something impossible rather than merely hard.
- Principle
- Understandable
- Guideline
- 3.2 Predictable
- Added in
- WCAG 2.0
- EN 301 549
- 9.3.2.1
- 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 the keyboard agent, the agents still in development and a human reviewer do the remaining work.
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, send the keyboard agent through the page you name and email you the report — free, once, no strings.