- Success Criterion 2.4.3
- Conformance level A
Disabled Controls Still Included in the Keyboard Tab Order
2.4.3 — Focus Order
Scenario
Setting
A government tax-filing portal
What’s wrong
Disabled controls included in the tab order, adding dead stops.
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
Tab through the page: if disabled controls still receive focus (creating dead stops with no action), it fails.
How to fix
Remove disabled controls from the tab order (disabled attribute or tabindex="-1" (code removing it from the Tab order)).
<!-- 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 government tax-filing portal, this barrier is gone for keyboard and screen-reader users who follow focus rather than the pointer — they get the same result as anyone else here.
Who is affected
Keyboard and screen-reader users who follow focus rather than the pointer.
Learn more
- Understanding Understanding document (opens in a new tab)
Related scenarios
- Tab Order That Jumps Around the Page Illogically
- Dialog That Opens Far From the Button That Triggered It
- Visual Layout Order That Doesn’t Match the Keyboard Tab Order
- Modal That Opens Without Moving Keyboard Focus Into It
- Modal That Closes Without Returning Focus to Its Trigger
- Expanded Content That Never Receives Keyboard Focus