Website Accessibility Guide Home

3.2.1 On Focus

MCS Accessibility Team

MCS Accessibility Team
Last Updated July 23, 2020

The following directions are part of a full step-by-step guide to making a HubSpot website WCAG 2.1 AA compliant. These recommendations are intended for websites managed on the HubSpot CMS but can be adapted for other content management systems.

LEVELA
Principle: Understandable
Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.
Guideline: Predictable
Make Web pages appear and operate in predictable ways.

When any component receives focus, it does not initiate a change of context.

View Official WCAG 2.1 Compliance Techniques

Understanding 3.2.1 On Focus

Anything that receives focus should not change context. For example any component that is able to trigger an event such a submit button on a form or a link that opens a new tab or window. 

All functionality of a website should be predictable as users navigate around. 

  • Example: If someone is tabbing through a dropdown menu and lands on a menu item, it should not take them to that new page until it is activated by the enter key on the keyboard. At the same time if they escape out of the menu the context should not change when they get out of the menu.

Recommended Solutions

Ensure that when focus is on an element to not trigger any changes of context unless it is activated by the user. Allow the user to control the activation via the return/enter key on their keyboard.

For more information, please visit the official W3C article: Understanding 3.2.1 On Focus

Next Article: 3.2.2 On Input

Questions?

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