Report or request services | North Somerset Council

Priorities and strategies | North Somerset Council

Voting and elections | North Somerset Council

Bins and recycling | North Somerset Council

Schools and learning | North Somerset Council

Trading standards | North Somerset Council

News | North Somerset Council

Planning and building control | North Somerset 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

North Somerset Council

Title / URL	Issues
Report or request services \| North Somerset Counciln-somerset.gov.uk/do-it-online/report-or-request-services	71
Priorities and strategies \| North Somerset Counciln-somerset.gov.uk/council-democracy/priorities-strategies	48
Voting and elections \| North Somerset Counciln-somerset.gov.uk/council-democracy/voting-elections	43
Bins and recycling \| North Somerset Counciln-somerset.gov.uk/my-services/bins-recycling	43
Schools and learning \| North Somerset Counciln-somerset.gov.uk/my-services/schools-learning	41
Trading standards \| North Somerset Counciln-somerset.gov.uk/business/trading-standards	38
News \| North Somerset Counciln-somerset.gov.uk/news?page=1	37
Planning and building control \| North Somerset Counciln-somerset.gov.uk/my-services/planning-building-control	36
News \| North Somerset Counciln-somerset.gov.uk/news?page=5	35
News \| North Somerset Counciln-somerset.gov.uk/news?page=0	35

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

North Somerset Council

Where this issue has occurred