WCAG 3.0 is an active W3C Working Draft in development by the AGWG. Requirements, assertions, the conformance model and reporting tiers are still being developed and may change. The latest published draft is the 10 September 2026 Working Draft; this site follows the editors’ draft, which also includes exploratory provisions.
Content that appears on hover or keyboard focus can be dismissed without moving the pointer or the focus, unless it does not cover or replace anything else.
Why It Matters
A popup covering the field you are typing in is a trap for magnification users - dismissing it by moving away means losing your place.
Receiving and then removing pointer hover or keyboard focus triggers additional content to become visible and then hidden, and the visual presentation of the additional content is controlled by the author and not by the user agent.
Notes in the draft
This applies to content that appears in addition to the triggering of the interactive element itself. Since hidden interactive elements that are made visible on keyboard focus (such as links used to skip to another part of a page/view) do not present additional content, they are not covered by this requirement.
Examples from the Draft
Worked examples the W3C editors wrote into the provision itself, not
examples invented here.
Additional content controlled by the user agent includes browser tooltips created through use of the HTML title attribute.
Custom tooltips, sub-menus, and other non-modal popups that display on hover and keyboard focus.
Check that the content can be closed without moving the pointer way from the trigger. Either by pressing Esc, by pressing another documented keyboard shortcut, or by activating the trigger.
For additional content that appears on focus:
Check that the content can be closed without moving the focus away from the trigger. Either by pressing Esc, by pressing another other documented keyboard shortcut, or by activating the trigger.
Expected results
For additional content that appears on hover: #1 is true.
For additional content that appears on focus: #1 is true.
W3C Working Group Status
W3C Maturity Status:developing
Track / Group:input-operation
The draft records no open editors' notes on this provision.
W3C Threads on This Provision
No GitHub issue in w3c/wcag3 carries this provision's label, so there
is no recorded discussion to show. Cross-cutting threads that name no
provision are listed on the
Discussions page.
WCAG 2.2 Criteria That Map Here
From this site's reviewed WCAG 2.2 → WCAG 3 map. The map is
an interpretation, not a W3C mapping: W3C has not published one yet.
A mechanism is available to dismiss content that appears on pointer hover or keyboard focus without moving pointer hover or keyboard focus, unless the additional content does not obscure or replace other content.
:::applies-when
- Receiving and then removing pointer hover or keyboard focus triggers additional content to become visible and then hidden, and the visual presentation of the additional content is controlled by the author and not by the user agent.
:::
:::note
This applies to content that appears in addition to the triggering of the interactive element itself. Since hidden interactive elements that are made visible on keyboard focus (such as links used to skip to another part of a page/view) do not present additional content, they are not covered by this requirement.
:::
:::example
Additional content controlled by the user agent includes browser tooltips created through use of the HTML `title` attribute.
:::
:::example
Custom tooltips, sub-menus, and other non-modal popups that display on hover and keyboard focus.
:::