Research projects | Birmingham City University

Course Search Results | Birmingham City University

Business events and venue hire | Birmingham City University

Alumni | Birmingham City University

Mature students | Birmingham City University

Business Services | Birmingham City University

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

February 2025

January 2025

Birmingham City University

Title / URL	Issues
Research projects \| Birmingham City Universitywww.bcu.ac.uk/research/areas/research-projects	13
Course Search Results \| Birmingham City Universitywww.bcu.ac.uk/courses/search?mode=5	13
Business events and venue hire \| Birmingham City Universitywww.bcu.ac.uk/business/events-and-venue-hire	13
Alumni \| Birmingham City Universitywww.bcu.ac.uk/alumni/	13
Mature students \| Birmingham City Universitywww.bcu.ac.uk/student-info/mature-students	13
Course Search Results \| Birmingham City Universitywww.bcu.ac.uk/courses/search?subj=1	13
Course Search Results \| Birmingham City Universitywww.bcu.ac.uk/courses/search?subj=5	13
Course Search Results \| Birmingham City Universitywww.bcu.ac.uk/courses/search?subj=6	13
Business Services \| Birmingham City Universitywww.bcu.ac.uk/business/	13
Course Search Results \| Birmingham City Universitywww.bcu.ac.uk/courses/search?type=3	13

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Birmingham City University

Where this issue has occurred