News | Open Water

cookies policy

Source for Business | Open Water

Clear Business Water Limited | Open Water

The Water Retail Company | Open Water

independent water networks | Open Water

Waterscan | Open Water

Advanced Demand Side Management (ADSM) | Open Water

Open Water | the website for the open water market

media information

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

Open Water market

	Title / URL	Issues
	News \| Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/about-open-water/news/	14
	cookies policywww.open-water.org.uk/cookies-policy/	14
	Source for Business \| Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/for-customers/find-a-retailer/suppliers/source-for-business/	14
	Clear Business Water Limited \| Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/for-customers/find-a-retailer/suppliers/clear-business-water/	14
	The Water Retail Company \| Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/for-customers/find-a-retailer/suppliers/the-water-retail-company/	14
	independent water networks \| Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/for-customers/self-supply/test-self-supplier/	14
	Waterscan \| Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/for-customers/find-a-retailer/suppliers/waterscan/	14
	Advanced Demand Side Management (ADSM) \| Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/for-customers/find-a-retailer/suppliers/advanced-demand-side-management-adsm/	14
	Open Water \| the website for the open water marketwww.open-water.org.uk/	14
	media informationwww.open-water.org.uk/media-information/	14

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Open Water market

Where this issue has occurred