Withdrawn banknotes | Bank of England

Climate change | Bank of England

Home | Bank of England

Eligible collateral | Bank of England

Market intelligence | Bank of England

The digital pound | Bank of England

Financial stability | Bank of England

Careers | Bank of England

SONIA interest rate benchmark | Bank of England

Request a speaker for your school | Bank of England

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

July 2025

June 2025

Bank Of England

Title / URL	Issues
Withdrawn banknotes \| Bank of Englandwww.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/withdrawn-banknotes	72
Climate change \| Bank of Englandwww.bankofengland.co.uk/climate-change	72
Home \| Bank of Englandwww.bankofengland.co.uk/	68
Eligible collateral \| Bank of Englandwww.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/eligible-collateral	42
Market intelligence \| Bank of Englandwww.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/market-intelligence	29
The digital pound \| Bank of Englandwww.bankofengland.co.uk/the-digital-pound	24
Financial stability \| Bank of Englandwww.bankofengland.co.uk/financial-stability	22
Careers \| Bank of Englandwww.bankofengland.co.uk/careers	21
SONIA interest rate benchmark \| Bank of Englandwww.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/sonia-benchmark	20
Request a speaker for your school \| Bank of Englandwww.bankofengland.co.uk/education/school-visits	20

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Bank Of England

Where this issue has occurred