ESA - Education

ESA - Careers at ESA

ESA - ESAC

ESA - 50 years of ESA

ESA - ESA Publications

ESA - Delegations

ESA - ESOC

ESA - ESTEC

ESA - EAC

ESA - esait

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

European Space Agency

Title / URL	Issues
ESA - Educationwww.esa.int/Education	74
ESA - Careers at ESAwww.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA	47
ESA - ESACwww.esa.int/About_Us/ESAC	43
ESA - 50 years of ESAwww.esa.int/About_Us/50_years_of_ESA	42
ESA - ESA Publicationswww.esa.int/About_Us/ESA_Publications	40
ESA - Delegationswww.esa.int/About_Us/Delegations	39
ESA - ESOCwww.esa.int/About_Us/ESOC	37
ESA - ESTECwww.esa.int/About_Us/ESTEC	36
ESA - EACwww.esa.int/About_Us/EAC	35
ESA - esaitwww.esa.int/About_Us/esait	35

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

European Space Agency

Where this issue has occurred