Registry | Dublin City University | Registry

DCU Placement | Dublin City University

Jobs | Dublin City University

Student Advice & Learning Skills Centre | Dublin City University | sal

DCU Campus Store | Dublin City University

DCU Sport | Dublin City University

Student Support & Development | Dublin City University | Student Support & Development

DCU Global | Dublin City University

Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland | Dublin City University | Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland

DCU Age Friendly University | Dublin City University | DCU Age Friendly University

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

May 2025

April 2025

Dublin City University

Title / URL	Issues
Registry \| Dublin City University \| Registrywww.dcu.ie/registry	10
DCU Placement \| Dublin City Universitywww.dcu.ie/placement	10
Jobs \| Dublin City Universitywww.dcu.ie/people/jobs	10
Student Advice & Learning Skills Centre \| Dublin City University \| salwww.dcu.ie/sal	1
DCU Campus Store \| Dublin City Universitywww.dcu.ie/campusstore	1
DCU Sport \| Dublin City Universitywww.dcu.ie/dcusport	1
Student Support & Development \| Dublin City University \| Student Support & Developmentwww.dcu.ie/students	1
DCU Global \| Dublin City Universitywww.dcu.ie/global	1
Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland \| Dublin City University \| Centre for Talented Youth, Irelandwww.dcu.ie/ctyi	1
DCU Age Friendly University \| Dublin City University \| DCU Age Friendly Universitywww.dcu.ie/agefriendly	1

Ensure controls change appearance when they are selected

Dublin City University

Where this issue has occurred