When focused

Focus is the state returned by an element that receives attention following a user action. There are three ways in HTML to give focus to an element:

• By activating the element using a pointing device (e.g. mouse);
• By reaching the element using the tab or shift + tab key;
• By activating the element using a keyboard shortcut.

critère 10.7 only concerns keyboard focus (tab, shift + tab, keyboard shortcut).

Some elements naturally receive the focus, for example: <a href>, <area href>, <button>, <input>, <object>, <select>, <label>, <legend>, <optgroup>, <option> and <textarea>. The behaviour of the element when focused depends on its nature; a link, for example, should be activated after the focus is set (unless a script is used). On the other hand, a form element, such as <textarea>, should allow input when focused. The elements <label> and <legend> only receive the focus when focused via the mouse pointer. For the <label> element, the expected behaviour is to transfer the focus to the element associated with it.

Note 1: the WAI-ARIA specification extends the role assigned to the tabindex attribute by defining that any HTML element can acquire the ability to receive focus by assigning it the value tabindex="0". On the other hand, no behaviour is assigned by the mere presence of tabindex. Similarly, the value tabindex="-1", when used on an element which naturally receives focus, removes the affected element from the tab plane by inhibiting its ability to signal when focused. The use of tabindex, in accordance with the WAI-ARIA specification, can validate certain tests relating to the management of tabulation focus, in particular.

Note 2: The browser's visual indication of focus must not be removed or degraded unless a focus style defined by the author is visible and sufficiently contrasting with respect to critère 3.3.