# Accessibility: initial focus

**URL:** <https://community.evolveauthoring.com/t/accessibility-initial-focus/2038>\
**Category:** Feature Requests\
**Tags:** accessibility\
**Created:** [December 7, 2022, 9:08am UTC](https://community.evolveauthoring.com/t/accessibility-initial-focus/2038 "2022-12-07T09:08:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ruppers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cab0a1/32.png) [@Ruppers](https://community.evolveauthoring.com/u/Ruppers)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 9:08am UTC](https://community.evolveauthoring.com/t/accessibility-initial-focus/2038/1 "2022-12-07T09:08:13Z")

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So currently, pages in Evolve don’t have an ‘initial focus’ set on the first component, page header etc. This means a screen reader starts at the first focusable element on the page (which could be a button halfway down the page), which creates some unnecessary confusion.

Please could Evolve add either the ability to set an initial focus or automatically set it to be the first title/article/component on the page?

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**Author:** ![hbailey](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.evolveauthoring.com/hbailey/32/603_2.png) [@hbailey](https://community.evolveauthoring.com/u/hbailey)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 9:56am UTC](https://community.evolveauthoring.com/t/accessibility-initial-focus/2038/2 "2022-12-07T09:56:21Z")

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@Sam_Cook_Evolve_LQA could you take a look at this one?

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**Author:** ![Sam\_Cook\_Evolve\_LQA](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.evolveauthoring.com/sam_cook_evolve_lqa/32/902_2.png) [@Sam\_Cook\_Evolve\_LQA](https://community.evolveauthoring.com/u/Sam_Cook_Evolve_LQA)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 10:17am UTC](https://community.evolveauthoring.com/t/accessibility-initial-focus/2038/3 "2022-12-07T10:17:01Z")

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Hi @Ruppers,  
this is actually being addressed in a big accessibility update coming shortly. Initial focus will default to the highest ranked heading on the page - it will also improve how focus is handled when navigating from page to page via the footer extension, back to the menu, using internal links to navigate, navigating via the bookmark extension, etc. We know the experience isn’t great right now, but I have been testing the work we have been doing for weeks now and it will be a much better experience.

Hopefully will be released this month or next.

Cheers-Sam

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**Author:** ![Ruppers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cab0a1/32.png) [@Ruppers](https://community.evolveauthoring.com/u/Ruppers)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 10:55am UTC](https://community.evolveauthoring.com/t/accessibility-initial-focus/2038/4 "2022-12-07T10:55:27Z")

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Awesome, thanks, Sam. Looking forward to the update!

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**Author:** ![BarryBPS](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.evolveauthoring.com/barrybps/32/540_2.png) [@BarryBPS](https://community.evolveauthoring.com/u/BarryBPS)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2023, 1:43pm UTC](https://community.evolveauthoring.com/t/accessibility-initial-focus/2038/5 "2023-01-19T13:43:05Z")

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I’m also looking forward to the update, as this fix cannot come soon enough for me.