SC 2.1.3 Level AAA Operable

Keyboard (No Exception)

WCAG 2.2 success criterion • Guideline: Keyboard Accessible

W3C Recommendation (Normative) ↗ Understanding SC 2.1.3 (Informative) ↗

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

All functionality can be operated through a keyboard interface without needing specific timing for individual keystrokes. Unlike 2.1.1, there is no exception for path-dependent input.

Normative text

Verbatim from WCAG 2.2, W3C Recommendation 12 December 2024. Underlined terms are defined below.

All functionality of the content is operable through a keyboard interface without requiring specific timings for individual keystrokes.

Definitions used (2)

Glossary definitions are normative. Their notes are informative.

functionality: processes and outcomes achievable through user action
keyboard interface: interface used by software to obtain keystroke input

Informative notes (2)

A keyboard interface allows users to provide keystroke input to programs even if the native technology does not contain a keyboard.

A touchscreen PDA has a keyboard interface built into its operating system as well as a connector for external keyboards. Applications on the PDA can use the interface to obtain keyboard input either from an external keyboard or from other applications that provide simulated keyboard output, such as handwriting interpreters or speech-to-text applications with "keyboard emulation" functionality.
Operation of the application (or parts of the application) through a keyboard-operated mouse emulator, such as MouseKeys, does not qualify as operation through a keyboard interface because operation of the program is through its pointing device interface, not through its keyboard interface.

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 2.1.3, so raise them as usability defects. Known failures, including failures of related criteria, are listed in Tier 1.

Keyboard alternatives for drawing or gesture tools can be technically present but tedious.

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.

Offer structured alternatives for path-based tasks, such as shape tools, numeric input for positions, or snap-to-grid.

W3C's Understanding document and techniques for SC 2.1.3 ↗ 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 2.1.3 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

WCAG 3 draft provision Keyboard Operable WCAG 3 draft provision Keyboard Accessible

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.”