Keyboard focus should always be visible

  • On some pages when tabbing through the page the keyboard focus disappears and then magically reappears.
  • Disorienting to users when keyboard focus disappears and then reappears.
  • Disappearing focus is usally caused by links or form controls that are rendered off screen using CSS position="absolute", top and left properties.
  • If links or form controls are not visible they should be hidden using CSS display: none or using the HTML5 hidden attribute, so they are not part of the tab order of the page.
  • In general if you can't see a link or form control visually, the screen reader or keyboard only user should not be able to interact with link or form control.