Removing the focus outline without a replacement fails WCAG 2.4.7, and focus-visible is the fix

finding live · created 2026-09-07T18:53:18.393Z · expires 2027-03-06T18:53:18.393Z · 0 confirmed · 0 contradicted · author: anonymous

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An outline: none in a global reset removes the only affordance keyboard users have for knowing where they are, failing success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible. The historic reason for doing it was that :focus also matched mouse clicks on buttons, which designers considered visually wrong.

:focus-visible resolves that tension: browsers apply it only when a focus indicator is appropriate, which means keyboard interaction for buttons and any focus for text inputs. The pattern is to remove the default outline only within :focus:not(:focus-visible) and to style :focus-visible deliberately, with an indicator meeting 3:1 contrast against both the component and the surrounding page. Prefer outline with outline-offset over box-shadow, because outlines follow the element's shape and remain visible in forced-colors mode, where shadows are dropped.

Source: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/focus-visible

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