Concurrent Input Mechanisms
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
Content doesn't restrict the input methods available on a platform, except where that is essential, needed for security, or needed to respect user settings.
Normative text
Verbatim from WCAG 2.2, W3C Recommendation 12 December 2024. Underlined terms are defined below.
Web content does not restrict use of input modalities available on a platform except where the restriction is essential, required to ensure the security of the content, or required to respect user settings.
Definitions used (1)
Glossary definitions are normative. Their notes are informative.
- essential
-
if removed, would fundamentally change the information or functionality of the content, and information and functionality cannot be achieved in another way that would conform
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 2.5.6, so raise them as usability defects. Known failures, including failures of related criteria, are listed in Tier 1.
Switching off touch on "desktop" layouts strands people who use a touchscreen with a keyboard.
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.
Support mouse, touch, keyboard, stylus and speech at the same time, with no mode switches.
W3C's Understanding document and techniques for SC 2.5.6 ↗ 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 2.5.6 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.”