# Understanding Accessibility Focus and Keyboard Focus in Android Compose

DevFeed: [Understanding Accessibility Focus and Keyboard Focus in Android Compose](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/it-s-all-about-accessibility-focus-and-compose-38508.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://eevis.codes/blog/2025-07-07/its-all-about-accessibility-focus-and-compose/>)

Author: Eevis Panula

Published: 2026-04-30T03:53:43.294000Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Eevis Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/eevis-blog.md>)

Topics: [Accessibility](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/accessibility.md>), [Compose](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/compose.md>), [Android](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/android.md>), [User interface design](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ui-design.md>)

Tags: [accessibility](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/accessibility.md>), [android](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/android.md>), [compose](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/compose.md>), [interaction](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/interaction.md>), [keyboard](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/keyboard.md>), [screen](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/screen.md>)

## AI overview

This tutorial explains the difference between accessibility focus used by screen readers such as TalkBack and keyboard focus used with keyboards, D-pads, and similar devices in Android Compose. It describes which elements can receive each type of focus and gives guidance on making touch-interactive components focusable.

## Source excerpt

I've seen multiple questions in various Slack communities, Stack Overflow, and other places related to focus on Android and how it doesn't behave as expected. The question typically concerns the use of focusRequester and then inquires why Talkback or other assistive technologies fail to set focus correctly. The simple answer is that these APIs are different, and focus behaves differently with accessibility focus and keyboard focus. In this blog post, I'll discuss the differences and what you can do in different cases. Let's first look at what I mean when I talk about accessibility focus and keyboard focus. Accessibility Focus In this blog post, accessibility focus refers to the focus related to screen readers, such as TalkBack. It could include focus for switch access as well, but I'm leaving it out of the scope of this blog post. When using a screen reader, accessibility focus can be set to any element relevant to the user, such as interactive elements, text, images with text alternatives (content descriptions), and other meaningful elements. The focus indicator can look different on different phones, but here's an example from my phone: It's set by the system, so the app developer can't edit it, and there shouldn't be any need to do that either. Keyboard Focus Keyboard focus, on the other hand, is the focus that interactive elements receive when a user uses a keyboard, D-pad, or other keyboard-emulating device for navigation. Only interactive elements should be focusable; never, for example, headings or other text. The default focus indicator is the ripple, so it's not that visible: Later, I will write a blog post about customising and making the focus indicator pass the accessibility legal requirements with color contrast and other requirements. Making a Component Focusable So you're creating a custom component, and wondering if it's the kind that should be focusable. The short and simple answer is that every component that the user can interact with via touch in