First time visit: View without clicking anything

About Us | Learn more about NCI | National College of Ireland

National College of Ireland | Award-Winning Dublin College

Centre for Education and Lifelong Learning | National College of Ireland

Choosing to Study at NCI | National College of Ireland

Early Learning Initiative | National College of Ireland

Career Development & Employability Service | NCI

Quality and Institutional Effectiveness (QIE) | National College of Ireland

IFS Apprenticeships | National College of Ireland

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

This is a stricter version of [WCAG 2.4.7](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/focus-visible.html),
which requires that the focus indicator is visible, but doesn't specify how clearly
it should be visible.

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

## The requirements

The [official requirements](https://w3c.github.io/wcag/understanding/focus-appearance.html) are 
complicated. A simplified version is:

* Surround the control with a solid outline
* The outline must have at least 3:1 contrast with its background
* The outline must have at least 3:1 contrast with its surroundings, or be at least 2px thick

The actual requirements allow for more variation, but generally require that you 
calculate the perimeter and/or area of the focus area, which can be very difficult.

## How to fix

Links and form controls should use a focus selector which contrasts with their
unfocused state, as well as any surroundings of the focus state. 

In practice, the easiest way to accomplish this is to use a two-color focus, like so:

```css
/* ensure high-contrast mode still has an indicator */
outline: 2px transparent solid;

/* Apply a thick yellow box-shadow with 
   a thin dark blue indicator in the middle */
box-shadow: 0 0 0 2px #F9F9D1, 0 0 0 4px #396196, 0 0 4px 8px #F9F9D1;
``` 

From [Technique C40](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Techniques/css/C40).

Using two contrasting colors guarantees that the focus state will be visible, 
regardless of the background or surrounding colors.

## Troubleshooting

### 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.

### Elements over images not analyzed

Silktide cannot assess the contrast of elements that are over images. This is because
the contrast of an element is calculated by comparing the color of the element with the
color of the background. 

If the element is over an image, the background color is the
color of the image, which varies from pixel-to-pixel, and may vary further as the page
is resized, due to responsive design.

### 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

This is part of the draft WCAG 2.2 specification and is subject to change.

* [WCAG 2.4.11](https://w3c.github.io/wcag/understanding/focus-appearance.html)

ensure-focus-appearance

June 2025

May 2025

National College of Ireland, Dublin

	Title / URL	Issues
	First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.ncirl.ie/	100
	About Us \| Learn more about NCI \| National College of Irelandwww.ncirl.ie/about	100
	National College of Ireland \| Award-Winning Dublin Collegewww.ncirl.ie/	100
	Centre for Education and Lifelong Learning \| National College of Irelandwww.ncirl.ie/About/Faculties/Centre-for-Education-and-Lifelong-Learning	100
	Choosing to Study at NCI \| National College of Irelandwww.ncirl.ie/study	100
	Choosing to Study at NCI \| National College of Irelandwww.ncirl.ie/Study	100
	Early Learning Initiative \| National College of Irelandwww.ncirl.ie/ELI	96
	Career Development & Employability Service \| NCIwww.ncirl.ie/Careers	92
	Quality and Institutional Effectiveness (QIE) \| National College of Irelandwww.ncirl.ie/About/Departments/Quality-and-Institutional-Effectiveness	92
	IFS Apprenticeships \| National College of Irelandwww.ncirl.ie/Study/Apprenticeships-at-NCI/IFS-Apprenticeships-at-NCI	90

Ensure controls clearly indicate when they are selected

National College of Ireland, Dublin

Where this issue has occurred