Copyright

privacy policy

News | Open Water - Part 3

November, 2020 | Open Water

News | Open Water - Part 2

accessibility

blogs | Open Water

Page not found – Open Water

FAQs | Open Water

February, 2020 | Open Water

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
Copyrightwww.open-water.org.uk/copyright/	7
privacy policywww.open-water.org.uk/privacy-policy/	7
News \| Open Water - Part 3www.open-water.org.uk/about-open-water/news/page/3/	7
November, 2020 \| Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/2020/11/?post_type=news	7
News \| Open Water - Part 2www.open-water.org.uk/about-open-water/news/page/2/	7
accessibilitywww.open-water.org.uk/accessibility/	7
blogs \| Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/about-open-water/news/blogs/	7
Page not found – Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/invented-url-for-404-page	7
FAQs \| Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/about-open-water/faqs/	7
February, 2020 \| Open Waterwww.open-water.org.uk/2020/02/?post_type=news	7

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Open Water market

Where this issue has occurred