Skip to content

Proposed Focusable element has no keyboard trap

Description

This rule checks for keyboard traps. This includes use of both standard and non-standard keyboard navigation to navigate through all content without becoming trapped.

Applicability

This rule applies to any HTML or SVG element that is focusable.

Expectation

For each test target, the outcome of at least one of the following rules is “passed”:

Assumptions

There are no assumptions.

Accessibility Support

There are no accessibility support issues known.

Background

This rule only requires navigation in one direction (either forward or backward), not both, and not a specific one. It is clear that not being able to escape a focus trap in any direction is a failure of Success Criterion 2.1.2 No keyboard trap. However, it is less clear that being able to escape in only one direction is enough to satisfy it. If Success Criterion 2.1.2 No keyboard trap requires the possibility to escape the trap in a specific way (e.g. forward standard keyboard navigation) or in both directions, this rule may pass while the criterion is not satisfied.

Bibliography

Accessibility Requirements Mapping

Input Rules

Outcomes of the following rules are required as input for this rule.

Test Cases

This Javascript file is used in several examples:

File /test-assets/focusable-no-keyboard-trap/keyboard.js:

var trapOn = false

function moveFocusToButton(btn) {
	if (trapOn) {
		document.getElementById(btn).focus()
	}
}

function escapeTrapOnCtrlM(e) {
	if (e.keyCode === 77 && e.ctrlKey) {
		trapOn = false
		document.getElementById('link2').focus()
	}
}

function moveFocusTo(elm) {
	if (trapOn) {
		document.getElementById(elm).focus()
	}
}

function showHelpText() {
	document.getElementById('helptext').innerHTML = '<p>Press Ctrl+M to Exit</p>'
}

Passed

Passed Example 1

Open in a new tab

These focusable elements do not create a trap for keyboard navigation.

<a href="#">Link 1</a> <button>Button1</button>

Passed Example 2

Open in a new tab

This element is made focusable by the tabindex attribute. It does not create a trap for keyboard navigation.

<div tabindex="1">Text</div>

Passed Example 3

Open in a new tab

This element is made focusable by the tabindex attribute, even if it is not part of the sequential focus navigation. It does not create a trap for keyboard navigation.

<div tabindex="-1">Text</div>

Passed Example 4

Open in a new tab

These focusable button elements have scripts that create a keyboard trap. The document includes help information in a paragraph before the button elements and the method advised works to escape the keyboard trap.

<script src="/test-assets/focusable-no-keyboard-trap/keyboard.js"></script>

<p>Press Ctrl+M to Exit</p>
<a id="link1" href="#">Link 1</a>
<button id="btn1" onfocus="trapOn = true" onblur="moveFocusToButton('btn2')" onkeydown="escapeTrapOnCtrlM(event)">
	Button 1
</button>
<button id="btn2" onfocus="trapOn = true" onblur="moveFocusToButton('btn1')" onkeydown="escapeTrapOnCtrlM(event)">
	Button 2
</button>
<a id="link2" href="#">Link 2</a>

Passed Example 5

Open in a new tab

These focusable button elements have scripts that create a keyboard trap. The document includes help information within the trap and the method advised works to escape the keyboard trap.

<script src="/test-assets/focusable-no-keyboard-trap/keyboard.js"></script>

<a id="link1" href="#">Link 1</a>
<button id="btn1" onfocus="trapOn = true" onblur="moveFocusToButton('btn2')" onkeydown="escapeTrapOnCtrlM(event)">
	Button 1
</button>
<p>Press Ctrl+M to Exit</p>
<button id="btn2" onfocus="trapOn = true" onblur="moveFocusToButton('btn1')" onkeydown="escapeTrapOnCtrlM(event)">
	Button 2
</button>
<a id="link2" href="#">Link 2</a>

Passed Example 6

Open in a new tab

These focusable button elements have scripts that create a keyboard trap. The document includes help information in a “help” link that once clicked exposes the instructions to escape the keyboard trap.

<script src="/test-assets/focusable-no-keyboard-trap/keyboard.js"></script>

<div onkeydown="escapeTrapOnCtrlM(event)">
	<a id="link1" href="#">Link 1</a>
	<button id="btn1" onfocus="trapOn = true" onblur="moveFocusTo('helpLink')">
		Button 1
	</button>
	<a id="helpLink" href="#" onclick="showHelpText()">How to go the next element</a>
	<div id="helptext"></div>
	<button id="btn2" onblur="moveFocusTo('btn1')">
		Button 2
	</button>
</div>
<a id="link2" href="#">Link 2</a>

Failed

Failed Example 1

Open in a new tab

This focusable element creates a keyboard trap bringing focus to the button. Note that if one of the links is removed, the focus may jump to the browser UI before the timeout expires, at which point the this.focus() trap cannot trigger anymore.

<a href="#">Link 1</a>
<button onblur="setTimeout(() => this.focus(), 10)">
	Button1
</button>
<a href="#">Link 2</a>

Failed Example 2

Open in a new tab

These focusable button elements create a keyboard trap preventing the last button to be reached using the keyboard.

<button onblur="setTimeout(() => this.nextElementSibling.focus(), 10)">
	Button1
</button>
<button onblur="setTimeout(() => this.previousElementSibling.focus(), 10)">
	Button2
</button>
<button>
	Button3
</button>

Failed Example 3

Open in a new tab

This button element is between other button elements creating a keyboard trap.

<button onblur="setTimeout(() => this.focus(), 10)">Button 1</button>
<button>Button 2</button>
<button onblur="setTimeout(() => this.focus(), 10)">Button 3</button>

Failed Example 4

Open in a new tab

These focusable button elements create a keyboard trap with no instructions.

<script src="/test-assets/focusable-no-keyboard-trap/keyboard.js"></script>

<a id="link1" href="#">Link 1</a>
<button id="btn1" onfocus="trapOn = true" onblur="moveFocusToButton('btn2')" onkeydown="escapeTrapOnCtrlM(event)">
	Button 1
</button>
<button id="btn2" onfocus="trapOn = true" onblur="moveFocusToButton('btn1')" onkeydown="escapeTrapOnCtrlM(event)">
	Button 2
</button>
<a id="link2" href="#">Link 2</a>

Failed Example 5

Open in a new tab

These focusable button elements create a keyboard trap with instructions that don’t give advice on the method for proceeding.

<script src="/test-assets/focusable-no-keyboard-trap/keyboard.js"></script>

<p>Go to the next element</p>
<a id="link1" href="#">Link 1</a>
<button id="btn1" onfocus="trapOn = true" onblur="moveFocusToButton('btn2')" onkeydown="escapeTrapOnCtrlM(event)">
	Button 1
</button>
<button id="btn2" onfocus="trapOn = true" onblur="moveFocusToButton('btn1')" onkeydown="escapeTrapOnCtrlM(event)">
	Button 2
</button>
<a id="link2" href="#">Link 2</a>

Failed Example 6

Open in a new tab

These focusable button elements create a keyboard trap with help text, where the method advised doesn’t work.

<script src="/test-assets/focusable-no-keyboard-trap/keyboard.js"></script>

<a id="link1" href="#">Link 1</a>
<button id="btn1" onfocus="trapOn = true" onblur="moveFocusToButton('btn2')">
	Button 1
</button>
<p>Press Ctrl+M to Exit</p>
<button id="btn2" onfocus="trapOn = true" onblur="moveFocusToButton('btn1')">
	Button 2
</button>
<a id="link2" href="#">Link 2</a>

Inapplicable

Inapplicable Example 1

Open in a new tab

There is no focusable element.

<h1>Page 1</h1>

Inapplicable Example 2

Open in a new tab

There is no focusable element.

<button type="button" disabled>Click Me!</button>

Inapplicable Example 3

Open in a new tab

There is no focusable element.

<button type="button" style="display:none;">Click Me!</button>

Inapplicable Example 4

Open in a new tab

There is no focusable element.

<a href="#" style="visibility:hidden;">Link 1</a> <button style="visibility:hidden;">Button1</button>

Glossary

Focusable

An element is focusable if one or both of the following are true:

Exception: Elements that lose focus during a period of up to 1 second after gaining focus, without the user interacting with the page the element is on, are not considered focusable.

Notes:

Namespaced Element

An element with a specific namespaceURI value from HTML namespaces. For example an “SVG element” is any element with the “SVG namespace”, which is http://www.w3.org/2000/svg.

Namespaced elements are not limited to elements described in a specification. They also include custom elements. Elements such as a and title have a different namespace depending on where they are used. For example a title in an HTML page usually has the HTML namespace. When used in an svg element, a title element has the SVG namespace instead.

Outcome

An outcome is a conclusion that comes from evaluating an ACT Rule on a test subject or one of its constituent test target. An outcome can be one of the three following types:

Note: A rule has one passed or failed outcome for every test target. When there are no test targets the rule has one inapplicable outcome. This means that each test subject will have one or more outcomes.

Note: Implementations using the EARL10-Schema can express the outcome with the outcome property. In addition to passed, failed and inapplicable, EARL 1.0 also defined an incomplete outcome. While this cannot be the outcome of an ACT Rule when applied in its entirety, it often happens that rules are only partially evaluated. For example, when applicability was automated, but the expectations have to be evaluated manually. Such “interim” results can be expressed with the incomplete outcome.

Standard keyboard navigation

Standard keyboard navigation entails using one or more of the following:

Expected behavior of standard keyboard navigation keys:

Rule Versions

This is the first version of this ACT rule.

Implementations

This section is not part of the official rule. It is populated dynamically and not accounted for in the change history or the last modified date.

Implementation Type Consistency Report
Trusted Tester 5.1 Test methodology Consistent Trusted Tester Report
Back to Top

This is an unpublished draft preview that might include content that is not yet approved. The published website is at w3.org/WAI/.