- Success Criterion 2.1.2
- Conformance level A
Autocomplete List That Keeps Recapturing Focus on Every Blur
2.1.2 — No Keyboard Trap
Scenario
Setting
A pharmacy app's prescription-refill form
What’s wrong
Autocomplete listboxes that re-open and recapture focus on every blur.
Example
This shows up on a pharmacy app's prescription-refill form: autocomplete listboxes that re-open and recapture focus on every blur.
Why it matters
All keyboard and screen-reader users who can become stuck inside a component. Here, on a pharmacy app's prescription-refill form, the result is they lose track of where they are on the page.
How to test
Tab into an autocomplete listbox, then Tab away: if it reopens and recaptures focus on every blur, it fails.
How to fix
Focus must always be able to leave the component using Tab/Shift+Tab or Esc (or a standard method the user is told about).
Outcome
After the fix, the same visitor to a pharmacy app's prescription-refill form can now reach and operate the control without a mouse, specifically for the “Autocomplete List That Keeps Recapturing Focus on Every Blur” issue on a pharmacy app's prescription-refill form.
Who is affected
All keyboard and screen-reader users who can become stuck inside a component.
Learn more
- Understanding Understanding document (opens in a new tab)
Related scenarios
- Keyboard Focus Stuck Inside an Embedded Plugin or Widget
- Modal Focus Trap With No Escape Key or Close Button
- Widget Where Tab Cycles Internally With No Way Out
- Third-Party Embed That Captures and Never Releases Tab Focus
- Script That Yanks Focus Back Every Time the User Tabs Away
- Rich Text Editor That Captures Tab With No Documented Escape