Content on Hover or Focus
Tier 1 · The normative floor
Baseline compliance
What the normative text of WCAG 2.2 requires, and nothing more. Only a failure of this tier is a WCAG failure.
The bare minimum
When hover or keyboard focus makes extra content appear (such as a custom tooltip or submenu): it can be dismissed without moving the pointer or focus, unless it shows an input error or doesn't cover other content; if triggered by hover, the pointer can move onto it without it disappearing; and it stays visible until the trigger is removed, the user dismisses it, or its information is no longer valid. Content whose presentation the browser controls, such as a title-attribute tooltip, is exempt.
Normative text
Verbatim from WCAG 2.2, W3C Recommendation 12 December 2024. Underlined terms are defined below.
Where receiving and then removing pointer hover or keyboard focus triggers additional content to become visible and then hidden, the following are true:
- Dismissible
- A mechanism is available to dismiss the additional content without moving pointer hover or keyboard focus, unless the additional content communicates an input error or does not obscure or replace other content;
- Hoverable
- If pointer hover can trigger the additional content, then the pointer can be moved over the additional content without the additional content disappearing;
- Persistent
- The additional content remains visible until the hover or focus trigger is removed, the user dismisses it, or its information is no longer valid.
Exception: The visual presentation of the additional content is controlled by the user agent and is not modified by the author.
Known failures
These fail this criterion or a related one named in the text. Log them as WCAG failures.
- Information that appears only on pointer hover, with no way to reach it by keyboard, fails 2.1.1 Keyboard. W3C's 1.4.13 Understanding document points to 2.1.1 for this.
Not required by the normative text
Common claims that this criterion does not support. Don't log these as WCAG failures.
- The Escape key specifically. The requirement is a mechanism to dismiss; Escape is the usual technique.
Definitions used (3)
Glossary definitions are normative. Their notes are informative.
- mechanism
-
process or technique for achieving a result
Informative notes (2)
The mechanism may be explicitly provided in the content, or may be relied upon to be provided by either the platform or by user agents, including assistive technologies.
The mechanism needs to meet all success criteria for the conformance level claimed.
- input error
-
information provided by the user that is not accepted
Informative notes (1)
This includes:
- Information that is required by the web page but omitted by the user
- Information that is provided by the user but that falls outside the required data format or values
- user agent
-
any software that retrieves and presents web content for users
Notes in the criterion Informative
WCAG 2.2 lists notes among its informative material, which "does not create requirements that impact a conformance claim." They help interpret the criterion but are not part of the floor.
Examples of additional content controlled by the user agent include browser tooltips created through use of the HTML title attribute [[HTML]].
Custom tooltips, sub-menus, and other nonmodal popups that display on hover and focus are examples of additional content covered by this criterion.
This criterion applies to content that appears in addition to the triggering component itself. Since hidden components that are made visible on keyboard focus (such as links used to skip to another part of a page) do not present additional content they are not covered by this criterion.
Tier 2 · The gap
Usability & user impact
Where content can meet this criterion and still make things harder for people with disabilities. These are not failures of SC 1.4.13, so raise them as usability defects. Known failures, including failures of related criteria, are listed in Tier 1.
Hover content can pass and still be awkward on touch screens, where there is no hover, and for magnifier users who lose it off-screen.
Tier 3 · The golden path
Recommended best practice
The pattern that meets the floor, closes the gap, and avoids audit disputes. A recommendation, not a requirement.
Dismiss with Escape, keep content open while hovered, and never put essential information only in hover content.
W3C's Understanding document and techniques for SC 1.4.13 ↗ are informative: sufficient techniques show ways to pass, and documented failures show common ways to fail, but neither changes what the criterion requires.
How SC 1.4.13 maps to the WCAG 3 draft
From this site's reviewed map to the WCAG 3 editor's draft. It's an interpretation: W3C has not published a mapping.
Successor provisions
From WCAG 2.2, section 5.1: “The main content of WCAG 2.2 is normative and defines requirements that impact conformance claims. Introductory material, appendices, sections marked as "non-normative", diagrams, examples, and notes are informative (non-normative). Non-normative material provides advisory information to help interpret the guidelines but does not create requirements that impact a conformance claim.”