Treaty & International | Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

Publications | Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

NIHRC - NIHRC | Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

News | Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

Our Work | Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

Contact Us | Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

When selecting a user interface component with the keyboard, the focus indicator must 
not be partly obscured by anything in front of it. This is the stricter version of this check for 
Level AAA.

## 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 2.4.13](https://w3c.github.io/wcag/understanding/focus-not-obscured-enhanced.html)

ensure-focus-is-not-obscured-enhanced

June 2025

May 2025

Title / URL	Issues
Treaty & International \| Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissionnihrc.org/our-work/international	55
Publications \| Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissionnihrc.org/publications	53
NIHRC - NIHRC \| Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissionnihrc.org/news/p3	46
News \| Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissionnihrc.org/about-us/news	46
NIHRC - NIHRC \| Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissionnihrc.org/news/p2	46
NIHRC - NIHRC \| Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissionnihrc.org/news/p46	44
NIHRC - NIHRC \| Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissionnihrc.org/news	44
Our Work \| Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissionnihrc.org/our-work	42
Contact Us \| Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissionnihrc.org/contact	42
Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissionnihrc.org/	42

Ensure focus is not partly obscured

Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

Where this issue has occurred