Success Criterion 2.4.3
Conformance level A
W3C reference F85

Dialog That Opens Far From the Button That Triggered It

2.4.3 — Focus Order

Scenario

Setting

A ticket marketplace's seat-selection map

What’s wrong

A dialog or menu opens far away in the tab order from the button that opened it — keyboard users tab onward and never find it.

Example

.field-3 { order: 1; } .field-1 { order: 3; } /* tab order scrambled by CSS */

Why it matters

Keyboard and screen-reader users who follow focus rather than the pointer.

How to test

Open a dialog/menu and immediately press Tab: if it lands somewhere else in the page instead of inside the dialog (dialog markup sits far from its trigger in the DOM), it fails.

How to fix

Insert the dialog/menu immediately after its trigger in the focus order (or move focus into it on open).

<!-- Reorder the actual DOM nodes to match the intended focus sequence -->

Focus order should follow a sequence that preserves meaning, matching how the content is meant to be read.

Outcome

On a ticket marketplace's seat-selection map, this barrier is gone for keyboard and screen-reader users who follow focus rather than the pointer — they no longer have to work around this.

Who is affected