When a user \'tabs over\' to an input, I want the focus effect to be normally displayed, but on click, I don\'t want it to be visible.
User hits tab
I think a lot of front-end developers struggle to find a balance between aesthetics and the best-practices for accessibility. This seems like a great compromise.
Here's how I do it. The idea is to toggle outlining on when the user uses the tab key and turn it back off when they click.
document.addEventListener('keydown', function(e) {
if (e.keyCode === 9) {
$('body').addClass('show-focus-outlines');
}
});
document.addEventListener('click', function(e) {
$('body').removeClass('show-focus-outlines');
});
body:not(.show-focus-outlines) button:focus,
body:not(.show-focus-outlines) [tabindex]:focus {
outline: none;
}
I'm currently doing something similar for my company. Unfortunately you must use JavaScript since CSS doesn't support this use case.
Here's what I've done.
var btns = document.querySelectorAll('button');
var onMouseDown = function (evt) {
evt.target.dataset.pressed = 'true';
};
var onMouseUp = function (evt) {
evt.target.dataset.pressed = 'false';
};
var onFocus = function (evt) {
var element = evt.target;
if (element.dataset.pressed !== 'true') {
element.classList.add('focus');
}
};
var onBlur = function (evt) {
evt.target.classList.remove('focus');
};
for(var i = 0, l = btns.length; i < l; i++) {
btns[i].addEventListener('mousedown', onMouseDown);
btns[i].addEventListener('mouseup', onMouseUp);
btns[i].addEventListener('focus', onFocus);
btns[i].addEventListener('blur', onBlur);
}
* { box-sizing: border-box; }
body { background-color: white; }
button {
-webkit-appearance: none;
-moz-appearance: none;
appearance: none;
min-width: 100px;
margin: 0 1px;
padding: 12px 10px;
font-size: 15px;
color: white;
background-color: #646e7c;
border: none;
border-radius: 5px;
box-shadow: 0 2px 2px 0 rgba(0,0,0,.2);
cursor: pointer;
-webkit-user-select: none;
-moz-user-select: none;
user-select: none;
}
button:focus { outline: none; }
button:active {
-webkit-transform: translateY(1px);
-moz-transform: translateY(1px);
transform: translateY(1px);
box-shadow: 0 0 2px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
}
button.focus {
font-weight: bold;
}
button.primary { background-color: #2093d0; }
button.success { background-color: #71a842; }
button.danger { background-color: #ef4448; }
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
</head>
<body>
<button>Default</button>
<button class="primary">Primary</button>
<button class="success">Success</button>
<button class="danger">Danger</button>
</body>
</html>
Basically instead of relying on browser's native focus I add/remove a focus class on my button depending on the situation.
If you use the what-input.js plugin you can apply styles specifically for keyboard users. You can use the following code to highlight a button that has been tabbed to. I've found what-input to be a reliable plugin (comes bundled with Zurb Foundation) and is currently regularly maintained.
// scss
body[data-whatinput="keyboard"] {
button {
&:focus {
// other highlight code here
box-shadow: 0 0 5px rgba(81, 203, 238, 1);
}
}
}
or
/* vanilla css */
body[data-whatinput="keyboard"] button:focus {
box-shadow: 0 0 5px rgba(81, 203, 238, 1);
}