---
name: Change of context
slug: change-of-context
category: accessibility
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: A shift big enough to disorient a reader, a new page, a new window,
  a moved focus, a rearranged form, and the rule that it should follow a request
  rather than a keystroke.
aliases:
  - name: on focus
    source: wcag
  - name: on input
    source: wcag
  - name: context change
    source: community
  - name: auto-submit on select
    source: community
  - name: change on request
    source: wcag
tags:
  - wcag
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - selection-follows-focus
    - pointer-cancellation
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso: []
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: "WCAG 2.2: On Input"
    url: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/#on-input
  - title: "WCAG 2.2: On Focus"
    url: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/#on-focus
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: naming the surprise a select or focus event should not cause
---

Two WCAG success criteria sit on top of one idea. 3.2.1 On Focus says that receiving
focus must not change the context, and 3.2.2 On Input says that changing a setting must
not change it either, unless the reader was warned before using the control. Together
they add up to a single working rule, which the standard calls change on request: the
interface may rearrange itself when it is asked to, and not when it is merely being read.

The definition of context is narrower than "something changed", and knowing the four
items is what makes the criteria usable in review. A change of context is a change of
user agent (a new window or tab), a change of viewport, a change of focus, or a change of
content that alters the meaning of the page. Revealing a hint under a field is not one.
Filtering a list in place is not one. Loading a new page, opening a new window, moving
focus somewhere the reader did not put it, and submitting a form are all firmly inside
it, which is why so many of the failures are the same shape.

The canonical failure is the country select that navigates the moment its value changes.
On a keyboard, moving through a native select's options changes the value at every stop,
so the page leaves under the reader while they are still travelling toward the option
they wanted, and they arrive somewhere they never chose. The same fault has other
disguises: a search field that submits on the first keystroke, a field that moves focus
to the next box the instant it is full (the auto-advance a [pin input](/pin-input) has to
handle carefully), and a tab that reloads the page instead of swapping a panel. Each one
takes an event that means "I am considering this" and treats it as "do it".

The fix is nearly always a button. Adding Go, Apply, or Search next to the control turns
an input event back into a request, costs one click, and makes the behaviour legible to
everyone rather than only to the people who already knew. Where a button genuinely is not
wanted, the other conforming route is advance warning: describe the behaviour in text
before the control, so nobody meets it by surprise. Neither route stops the interface
from reporting what it did, which belongs in a [status message](/status-message) read out
by a [live region](/live-region), not in a page that has already gone.