Search results | Imperial College London

Campuses and maps | Visit | Imperial College London

Enterprise | Administration and support services | Imperial College London

First time visit: View without clicking anything

What's on | Imperial College London

Undergraduate | Study | Imperial College London

Fees and funding | Study | Imperial College London

Postgraduate taught | Study | Imperial College London

Study | Imperial College London

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

January 2025

December 2024

Imperial College London

Title / URL	Issues
Search results \| Imperial College Londonwww.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search/	54
Campuses and maps \| Visit \| Imperial College Londonwww.imperial.ac.uk/visit/campuses/	54
Enterprise \| Administration and support services \| Imperial College Londonwww.imperial.ac.uk/enterprise/	26
First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.imperial.ac.uk/	1
What's on \| Imperial College Londonwww.imperial.ac.uk/whats-on/	1
Undergraduate \| Study \| Imperial College Londonwww.imperial.ac.uk/study/apply/undergraduate/	1
Search results \| Imperial College Londonwww.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search/?keywords=public+health	1
Fees and funding \| Study \| Imperial College Londonwww.imperial.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/	1
Postgraduate taught \| Study \| Imperial College Londonwww.imperial.ac.uk/study/apply/postgraduate-taught/	1
Study \| Imperial College Londonwww.imperial.ac.uk/study/	1

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Imperial College London

Where this issue has occurred