Our Impact: Product Innovation & ESG Strategy | Stanley Black & Decker

Our Brands: Industrial | Stanley Black & Decker

Stanley Black & Decker Homepage | Stanley Black & Decker

Investors | Stanley Black & Decker

Contact Us | Stanley Black & Decker

Making a Difference: Our Impact Programs | Stanley Black & Decker

Press Center | Stanley Black & Decker

IRWIN – Hand Tools & Power Tool Accessories | Stanley Black & Decker

Our Brands | Stanley Black & Decker

Our Impact: People - Empowering Makers | Stanley Black & Decker

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

August 2025

July 2025

Stanley Black & Decker

Title / URL	Issues
Our Impact: Product Innovation & ESG Strategy \| Stanley Black & Deckerwww.stanleyblackanddecker.com/impact/product	28
Our Brands: Industrial \| Stanley Black & Deckerwww.stanleyblackanddecker.com/brands/industrial	25
Stanley Black & Decker Homepage \| Stanley Black & Deckerwww.stanleyblackanddecker.com/	25
Investors \| Stanley Black & Deckerwww.stanleyblackanddecker.com/investors	24
Contact Us \| Stanley Black & Deckerwww.stanleyblackanddecker.com/about/contact	24
Making a Difference: Our Impact Programs \| Stanley Black & Deckerwww.stanleyblackanddecker.com/impact	23
Press Center \| Stanley Black & Deckerwww.stanleyblackanddecker.com/news-stories/all	21
IRWIN – Hand Tools & Power Tool Accessories \| Stanley Black & Deckerwww.stanleyblackanddecker.com/brands/tools/irwin	21
Our Brands \| Stanley Black & Deckerwww.stanleyblackanddecker.com/brands	21
Our Impact: People - Empowering Makers \| Stanley Black & Deckerwww.stanleyblackanddecker.com/impact/people	21

Ensure controls change appearance when they are selected

Stanley Black & Decker

Where this issue has occurred