- Success Criterion 3.2.1
- Conformance level A
Autofocus Chain That Jumps Focus From One Field to Another
3.2.1 — On Focus
Scenario
Setting
A hospital's patient portal appointment scheduler
What’s wrong
Autofocus chains: focusing field A programmatically jumping focus to field B.
Example
A hospital's patient portal appointment scheduler is a good example: autofocus chains: focusing field A programmatically jumping focus to field B.
Why it matters
Keyboard and screen-reader users, and people who are easily disoriented by surprise UI changes. On a hospital's patient portal appointment scheduler specifically, they lose confidence they're in the right place.
How to test
Tab to field A and stop: if focus programmatically jumps to field B without any user action, it fails.
How to fix
Receiving keyboard focus must cause no change — no activation, selection, navigation, popup, or focus jump.
Outcome
Fixed, a visitor to a hospital's patient portal appointment scheduler can find the same feature in the same place.
Who is affected
Keyboard and screen-reader users, and people who are easily disoriented by surprise UI changes.
Learn more
- Understanding Understanding document (opens in a new tab)
Related scenarios
- Element That Loses Focus the Instant It’s Reached
- Tabbing Into a Field That Opens a Modal Automatically
- Tabbing to a Menu Item That Auto-Navigates to Its Page
- Selecting an Option That Submits the Form Automatically
- Keyboard Focus Triggering an Unexpected Scroll Jump
- Tabbing Into a Field That Opens a Chat Widget