Southwark Presents | Southwark Council

Hello, welcome to Southwark | Southwark Council

Housing | Southwark Council

Contact us | Southwark Council

Find a library | Southwark Council

New mayor and Cabinet announced | Southwark Council

Business and licences | Southwark Council

Parking | Southwark Council

Housing support | Southwark Council

Make a payment | Southwark Council

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

June 2025

May 2025

London Borough of Southwark Council

	Title / URL	Issues
	Southwark Presents \| Southwark Councilwww.southwark.gov.uk/southwark-presents	59
	Hello, welcome to Southwark \| Southwark Councilwww.southwark.gov.uk/	58
	Housing \| Southwark Councilwww.southwark.gov.uk/housing	52
	Contact us \| Southwark Councilwww.southwark.gov.uk/about-council/contact-us	49
	Find a library \| Southwark Councilwww.southwark.gov.uk/culture-and-sport/libraries/find-library	47
	New mayor and Cabinet announced \| Southwark Councilwww.southwark.gov.uk/news/2024/new-mayor-and-cabinet-announced	44
	Business and licences \| Southwark Councilwww.southwark.gov.uk/business-and-licences	44
	Parking \| Southwark Councilwww.southwark.gov.uk/parking-streets-and-transport/parking	44
	Housing support \| Southwark Councilwww.southwark.gov.uk/housing/housing-support	43
	Make a payment \| Southwark Councilwww.southwark.gov.uk/about-council/make-payment	43

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

London Borough of Southwark Council

Where this issue has occurred