Members' quizzes | English Heritage

An Introduction to Prehistoric England | English Heritage

What's On - events and activities | English Heritage

Travel Guides | English Heritage

Roman Britain | English Heritage

Teaching Resources | English Heritage

Black History | English Heritage

Women in History | English Heritage

Visit FAQs | English Heritage

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

August 2025

July 2025

English Heritage

	Title / URL	Issues
	Members' quizzes \| English Heritagewww.english-heritage.org.uk/members-area/members-magazine/quizzes/	100
	An Introduction to Prehistoric England \| English Heritagewww.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/prehistory/	100
	What's On - events and activities \| English Heritagewww.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/whats-on/	100
	What's On - events and activities \| English Heritagewww.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/whats-on	100
	Travel Guides \| English Heritagewww.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/travel-guides/	100
	Roman Britain \| English Heritagewww.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/romans/	100
	Teaching Resources \| English Heritagewww.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/teaching-resources/	100
	Black History \| English Heritagewww.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/black-history/	99
	Women in History \| English Heritagewww.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/women-in-history/	91
	Visit FAQs \| English Heritagewww.english-heritage.org.uk/about/contact-us-and-faqs/visit-faqs/	90

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

English Heritage

Where this issue has occurred