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.
developingCore requirement
Pointer Activation Controllable
Group: input-operation • Guideline: pointer-input
Summary in Plain English
For anything activated by a simple pointer input, at least one of these has to hold: nothing happens on the down event; the action completes on the up event and can be cancelled beforehand or undone afterwards; or the up event reverses whatever the down event did. Only an essential need to act on the down event is exempt.
Why It Matters
People with tremor, limited dexterity or an imprecise pointer press the wrong thing regularly. Acting on release rather than press is what makes a mis-press recoverable.
Completing the function on the down event is essential.
Examples from the Draft
Worked examples the W3C editors wrote into the provision itself, not
examples invented here.
An example of Cancel would be dragging where there is a pickup action on button down, but it can be canceled by dropping anywhere other than the drop area.
Examples of places where action on down event may be essential include a descending-price auction or a game trigger.
For each element that can be activated with a simple pointer:
Check that the down-event of the pointer is not used to execute any part of the function.
Check that completion of the function is on the up-event, and a mechanism is available to abort the function before completion or to undo the function after completion.
Check that the up-event reverses any outcome of the preceding down-event.
Check that completing the function on the down-event is essential.
Expected results
Any of #1, #2, #3, or #4 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.
At least one of the following is true for functionality that can be activated using a simple pointer input:
No down event
: The down event of the pointer is not used to execute any part of the function.
Cancel or undo
: Completion of the function is on the up event and a mechanism is available to cancel the function before completion, or there is a mechanism to undo the function after completion.
Up reversal
: The up event reverses any outcome of the preceding down event.
:::except-when
- Completing the function on the down event is essential.
:::
:::example
An example of Cancel would be dragging where there is a pickup action on button down, but it can be canceled by dropping anywhere other than the drop area.
:::
:::example
Examples of places where action on down event may be essential include a descending-price auction or a game trigger.
:::