Shares Magazine | Free Investment Magazine | AJ Bell

Our awards | AJ Bell

Investment Podcasts | News & Stock Market Podcasts | AJ Bell

Our services | AJ Bell

Self-Invested Personal Pension | Open a SIPP | AJ Bell

Stocks & Shares LISA | Open a Lifetime ISA | AJ Bell

Shares and markets | AJ Bell

Learn to Invest: Free Guides, Videos & Podcasts | AJ Bell

Low-Cost Online Share Dealing Account | AJ Bell

AJ Bell | Award-winning investment platform

When selecting a user interface component with the keyboard, the focus indicator must 
not be completely obscured by anything in front of it.

## Why this matters

When using a keyboard, it is important that the user can see where they are on the page.
If the focus indicator is obscured, the user may not know where they are, and may not
be able to interact with the page.

## Examples

Most common examples include:

* Banners at the top or bottom of the page, such as cookie banners
* Fixed navigation bars
* Fixed footers
* Popup modals, such as cookie consent modals

## How to fix

With elements that cover part of the screen, such as cookie banners, ensure
that the user can scroll to see any content behind the banner, without having to close
the banner.

With popup modals, it should usually be impossible to focus anything behind the modal.
Most common modal frameworks will automatically trap focus within the modal, so that
this is impossible. Example: [Bootstrap Modal](https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.2/components/modal/#live-demo).

## Further reading

This is part of the draft WCAG 2.2 specification and is subject to change.

* [WCAG 2.4.12](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/focus-not-obscured.html)

ensure-focus-is-not-obscured-minimum

September 2025

August 2025

AJ Bell

Title / URL	Issues
Shares Magazine \| Free Investment Magazine \| AJ Bellwww.ajbell.co.uk/sharesmagazine	97
Our awards \| AJ Bellwww.ajbell.co.uk/awards	76
Investment Podcasts \| News & Stock Market Podcasts \| AJ Bellwww.ajbell.co.uk/podcasts/channel/all	74
Our services \| AJ Bellwww.ajbell.co.uk/our-services	59
Self-Invested Personal Pension \| Open a SIPP \| AJ Bellwww.ajbell.co.uk/pensions/sipp	57
Stocks & Shares LISA \| Open a Lifetime ISA \| AJ Bellwww.ajbell.co.uk/isa/lifetime-isa	56
Shares and markets \| AJ Bellwww.ajbell.co.uk/markets	55
Learn to Invest: Free Guides, Videos & Podcasts \| AJ Bellwww.ajbell.co.uk/learn	54
Low-Cost Online Share Dealing Account \| AJ Bellwww.ajbell.co.uk/dealing-account	53
AJ Bell \| Award-winning investment platformwww.ajbell.co.uk/	50

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

AJ Bell

Where this issue has occurred