<p>Convey meaning through color with a handful of emphasis utility classes. These may also be applied to links and will darken on hover just like our default link styles.</p>
<p>Sometimes emphasis classes cannot be applied due to the specificity of another selector. In most cases, a sufficient workaround is to wrap your text in a <code><span></code> with the class.</p>
<h4>Conveying meaning to assistive technologies</h4>
<p>Using color to add meaning only provides a visual indication, which will not be conveyed to users of assistive technologies – such as screen readers. Ensure that information denoted by the color is either obvious from the content itself (the contextual colors are only used to reinforce meaning that is already present in the text/markup), or is included through alternative means, such as additional text hidden with the <code>.sr-only</code> class.</p>
<p>Similar to the contextual text color classes, easily set the background of an element to any contextual class. Anchor components will darken on hover, just like the text classes.</p>
<p>Sometimes contextual background classes cannot be applied due to the specificity of another selector. In some cases, a sufficient workaround is to wrap your element's content in a <code><div></code> with the class.</p>
<h4>Conveying meaning to assistive technologies</h4>
<p>As with <ahref="#helper-classes-colors">contextual colors</a>, ensure that any meaning conveyed through color is also conveyed in a format that is not purely presentational.</p>
<p>Use carets to indicate dropdown functionality and direction. Note that the default caret will reverse automatically in <ahref="../components/#btn-dropdowns-dropup">dropup menus</a>.</p>
<p>Float an element to the left or right with a class. <code>!important</code> is included to avoid specificity issues. Classes can also be used as mixins.</p>
<p>To align components in navbars with utility classes, use <code>.navbar-left</code> or <code>.navbar-right</code> instead. <ahref="../components/#navbar-component-alignment">See the navbar docs</a> for details.</p>
<p>Easily clear <code>float</code>s by adding <code>.clearfix</code><strong>to the parent element</strong>. Utilizes <ahref="http://nicolasgallagher.com/micro-clearfix-hack/">the micro clearfix</a> as popularized by Nicolas Gallagher. Can also be used as a mixin.</p>
<h3id="helper-classes-show-hide">Showing and hiding content</h3>
<p>Force an element to be shown or hidden (<strong>including for screen readers</strong>) with the use of <code>.show</code> and <code>.hidden</code> classes. These classes use <code>!important</code> to avoid specificity conflicts, just like the <ahref="#helper-classes-floats">quick floats</a>. They are only available for block level toggling. They can also be used as mixins.</p>
<p><code>.hide</code> is available, but it does not always affect screen readers and is <strong>deprecated</strong> as of v3.0.1. Use <code>.hidden</code> or <code>.sr-only</code> instead.</p>
<p>Furthermore, <code>.invisible</code> can be used to toggle only the visibility of an element, meaning its <code>display</code> is not modified and the element can still affect the flow of the document.</p>
{% highlight html %}
<divclass="show">...</div>
<divclass="hidden">...</div>
{% endhighlight %}
{% highlight scss %}
// Classes
.show {
display: block !important;
}
.hidden {
display: none !important;
visibility: hidden !important;
}
.invisible {
visibility: hidden;
}
// Usage as mixins
.element {
.show();
}
.another-element {
.hidden();
}
{% endhighlight %}
<h3id="helper-classes-screen-readers">Screen reader and keyboard navigation content</h3>
<p>Hide an element to all devices <strong>except screen readers</strong> with <code>.sr-only</code>. Combine <code>.sr-only</code> with <code>.sr-only-focusable</code> to show the element again when it's focused (e.g. by a keyboard-only user). Necessary for following <ahref="../getting-started/#accessibility">accessibility best practices</a>. Can also be used as mixins.</p>
{% highlight html %}
<aclass="sr-only sr-only-focusable"href="#content">Skip to main content</a>