Use a submit button, not automatic submission
Nothing happens until the reader presses the button. G80 is the technique of routing every change of context through an explicit submit, and W3C counts it as sufficient for the on-input rule at Level A, using a more specific technique, which in HTML means a real button or an input of type submit. It works because a submit button already means what it needs to mean. Everybody knows that pressing it commits something, so nobody is caught out when it does. The two patterns it replaces are worth naming. A form that submits itself the moment the last field is filled, and a control that opens a new window as soon as a radio button or a select changes. Both of those are documented failures in their own right.
How we find it in an audit
We work every form with the keyboard, changing values without submitting, and watch for anything that happens by itself. Filter panels and multi-step forms are the usual sources, along with any select that navigates. Then a reviewer checks the button really is a submit rather than a div with a click handler, since a div does not answer the Enter key and Enter is the shortcut most people reach for. Where a form genuinely has to react to a change, a warning placed before the control is the other route.
How affected users experience it
A screen-reader user arrows down a select to hear the choices, because that is how a select gets read. A form that acts on the third option means they never hear the fourth. Somebody using a switch or voice control moves through options one deliberate step at a time, so each step becomes a commitment. And a form that submits itself when the last field is filled catches the person who was about to go back and fix the second one. A submit button leaves room to change your mind, and that room is the accessibility feature.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
Choose any values you like, then press Apply filters, which is the only element on the form that commits the choice.
Fails
A filter form applies and reloads results the moment any dropdown changes, so seven options means one option heard.
Other ways to satisfy this rule
8 guides on this site are filed under 3.2.2 On Input. W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule when it is implemented through a more specific technique, so the condition is part of the test rather than a footnote to it.
- G13sufficientSay what a control will do before it does it
- H32sufficientGive every form a real submit button
- H84sufficientPair select menus with a real action button
- PDF15sufficientGive PDF forms an explicit submit button
- SCR19sufficientNever change context when a select changes
- F36failureDo not auto-submit when the last field changes
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G80: Providing a submit button to initiate a change of context. W3C publishes its techniques as guidance rather than as the standard, and says so on every one of them. The success criterion is what conformance is measured against, and a technique is one documented way to meet it.