Playford News · City of Playford

Development · City of Playford

Immunisation Services · City of Playford

Arts and Culture · City of Playford

Council · City of Playford

Your rates · City of Playford

Around Me · City of Playford

Wastewater and waste water · City of Playford

Live · City of Playford

Food Safety · City of Playford

All controls on the page - including links, buttons, and fields - should show when 
they have been selected by the keyboard.

You can confirm this yourself by loading a webpage and using the Tab key to navigate 
through it. Anything you can select should alter its appearance when selected. 
For example, a text field might change color, or have a distinctive border applied. 

This is default behavior for all standard web controls, and so if this issue is appearing
it is because this default behavior has been disabled. Or alternatively, if you have written
your own custom controls, these will need styling to support focus states.

## How to fix

Links and form controls typically define an `outline` CSS style, which ensures
they are highlighted automatically, for example:

```css
input:focus (outline: 2px solid red);
``` 

If you choose to override or disable the default `outline`, you should specify an accessible 
alternative, such as a border or background color.

### Elements appear to change in the browser

Focus states should be defined in CSS alone, and not require JavaScript to work.

Try disabling JavaScript on the page, and see if focus is still visible. If it not,
then the focus state won't work with assistive technologies that don't have a physical
keyboard, e.g. mobile phones.

Some more unusual means of implementing a focus state cannot be detected or measured
automatically. These include:

* Focus implemented via pseudo-elements - such as `::after` or `::before`.
* Focus using `:focus-within` (JavaScript current provides no way to access these).
* Focus cascaded to child elements, e.g. a `<span>` inside an `<a>` tag. We detect
  some of these cases, but there are variations that we cannot detect.

Currently, there is no practical way to assess these focus states automatically.

### Unexpected elements are focusable

You may be surprised to see tags like `<div>` or `<span>` being shown as focusable.
If an element has a `tabindex` of 0 or higher, it becomes focusable. Any HTML tag can be made 
focusable in this way, this is so that custom controls (e.g. your own drop-down menus, or 
sliders) can support keyboard navigation. [Learn more about tabindex on MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes/tabindex).

## Further reading

* [WCAG 2.4.7](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/focus-visible.html)

ensure-focus-is-visible

June 2025

May 2025

City of Playford

	Title / URL	Issues
	Playford News · City of Playfordwww.playford.sa.gov.au/explore/playford-news	21
	Development · City of Playfordwww.playford.sa.gov.au/development	16
	Immunisation Services · City of Playfordwww.playford.sa.gov.au/live/around-me/immunisation-services	14
	Arts and Culture · City of Playfordwww.playford.sa.gov.au/explore/arts-and-culture	14
	Council · City of Playfordwww.playford.sa.gov.au/council	14
	Your rates · City of Playfordwww.playford.sa.gov.au/live/home-and-property/rates	14
	Around Me · City of Playfordwww.playford.sa.gov.au/live/around-me	14
	Wastewater and waste water · City of Playfordwww.playford.sa.gov.au/live/home-and-property/wastewater	14
	Live · City of Playfordwww.playford.sa.gov.au/live	14
	Food Safety · City of Playfordwww.playford.sa.gov.au/live/around-me/food-safety	14

Ensure controls change appearance when they are selected

City of Playford

Where this issue has occurred