Phoenix Voices | 1Phoenix Community Housing

Home safety advice | Phoenix Community Housing

Antisocial behaviour | Phoenix Community Housing

Homeowner information | Phoenix Community Housing

Support into work | Phoenix Community Housing

About us | Phoenix Community Housing

Phoenix Community Housing

The Board | Phoenix Community Housing

Tenant information | Phoenix Community Housing

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

August 2025

July 2025

Phoenix Community Housing Association (Bellingham and Downham) Limited

Title / URL	Issues
Phoenix Voices \| 1Phoenix Community Housingwww.phoenixch.org.uk/blogs	15
Home safety advice \| Phoenix Community Housingwww.phoenixch.org.uk/home-safety-advice	11
Antisocial behaviour \| Phoenix Community Housingwww.phoenixch.org.uk/advice-support/antisocial-behaviour	10
Home safety advice \| Phoenix Community Housingwww.phoenixch.org.uk/advice-support/home-safety	10
Homeowner information \| Phoenix Community Housingwww.phoenixch.org.uk/Home%20owner	9
Support into work \| Phoenix Community Housingwww.phoenixch.org.uk/advice-support/support-into-work	8
About us \| Phoenix Community Housingwww.phoenixch.org.uk/about	8
Phoenix Community Housingwww.phoenixch.org.uk/	8
The Board \| Phoenix Community Housingwww.phoenixch.org.uk/board	8
Tenant information \| Phoenix Community Housingwww.phoenixch.org.uk/tenant	7

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Phoenix Community Housing Association (Bellingham and Downham) Limited

Where this issue has occurred