Elements should not have tabindex greater than zero

Rule ID: tabindex
Ruleset: axe-core 4.1
User Impact: Serious
Guidelines: Deque Best Practice

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Compliance Data & Impact

User Impact

Serious
▼
Minor
Critical

Disabilities Affected

  • Blind
  • Deafblind
  • Mobility

Standard(s)

  • Deque Best Practice

    How to Fix the Problem

    There are two main ways to avoid using tabindex with a value greater than 0. The first method is to change the tabindex to 0. Note that this may change the order in which the user tabs through the elements. The second method is to remove the tabindex entirely and modify the structure of the page so that a user tabbing through elements reach them in the order initially desired.

    A third method is to change the tabindex to tabindex="-1" and add Javascript. This removes the element from the tab order until you use Javascript changes the "-1" to a "0".

    Adding Items to the Tab Order Using tabindex="0" or tabindex="-1" + JavaScript

    Only links and form elements can receive the tab focus under normal conditions. Most of the time it is best to not add other items (such as <p>, <th>, <span>, etc.) to the tab flow, but under some exceptional circumstances — such as some kinds of complex interactive JavaScript widgets — it can make sense to add items to the tab flow that would not normally receive the tab focus. There are two ways to accomplish this:

    1. tabindex="0"
    2. tabindex="-1" + JavaScript
    Methods for allowing items to receive tab focus
    Method Effect
    tabindex="0" Puts the item in the normal tab flow.
    tabindex="-1" + JavaScript Keeps the item out of the normal tab flow until a JavaScript method allows tab focus and changes the value (i.e. by changing the tabindex value to 0 or a positive number)

    Regardless of the fix you choose, be sure that the resulting tab order follows a pattern that is logical from the user’s perspective. Remember that tab order is determined by order of elements in the DOM, as opposed to how they visual positioning. Remember that Default Tab Order = Source Code Order = The Order With Styles Turned Off.

    Caution: The following CSS styles can change the order in which elements are visually positioned and can thus cause a confusing tab order:

    • position: absolute;
    • position: relative;
    • float: left;
    • float: right;

    Why it Matters

    Using tabindex with a value greater than 0 can create as many problems as it solves. It creates an unexpected tab order, which makes the page less intuitive and can give the appearance of skipping certain elements entirely.

    Here are some of the problems that tabindex (with a value of 1 or greater) causes:

    • Unexpected tab order: From the perspective of the user, tabindex changes the default tab order in unexpected ways, possibly causing disorientation.
    • Items can appear to be skipped entirely: Items appear in the tab order only once. If a user tabs past the tabindex items and continues through the rest of the web page, at some point the user arrives at the location of the tabindex items, but the tabbing process skips over these links, because the user already tabbed through them at the beginning of the cycle. Incorrect tab orders are frustrating when users are unable access items, and may not know that (s)he needs to cycle through the entire set of links on the page to reaccess those links.
    • All tabindex items are tabbed to before any non-tabindex items. If you want to change the tab order of the first items AND of a section later in the page, you would need to set the tabindex value for every single item through to the end of the modified section. Taken to a bit of an extreme, if you have 20 links on a page, and if you set the tabindex of one of those links to tabindex="100", the user tabs to that link first, even though there are fewer than 100 links on the page. There is no way to modify the tab order of sections later in the page unless you manually set the tab order of all the links before that section.

    Rule Description

    A tabindex attribute must never have a value greater than 0 to prevent an unexpected tab order that can give the appearance of skipping some elements entirely.

    The Algorithm (in simple terms)

    Ensures that explicit tabindex attributes that are greater than 0 are never used

    Resources

    Deque University Course Pages (subscription required)

    Contribute to axe-core on GitHub

    Other Resources

    You may also want to check out these other resources.

    Refer to the complete list of axe 4.1 rules.

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