Educational Resources | Royal Irish Academy

John Bell Day | Royal Irish Academy

Culture Night 2023 | Royal Irish Academy

About Publications | Royal Irish Academy

News | Royal Irish Academy

ARINS | Royal Irish Academy

Bookshop | Royal Irish Academy

A history of Ireland in 100 words campaign | Royal Irish Academy

Art and Architecture of Ireland | Royal Irish Academy

Covid-19 Research Response | Royal Irish Academy

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

Royal Irish Academy, Dublin

Title / URL	Issues
Educational Resources \| Royal Irish Academywww.ria.ie/educational-resources	11
John Bell Day \| Royal Irish Academywww.ria.ie/johnbellday	11
Culture Night 2023 \| Royal Irish Academywww.ria.ie/culture-night-2023	11
About Publications \| Royal Irish Academywww.ria.ie/publications/about	11
News \| Royal Irish Academywww.ria.ie/news	11
ARINS \| Royal Irish Academywww.ria.ie/arins	11
Bookshop \| Royal Irish Academywww.ria.ie/bookshop/type/publication	11
A history of Ireland in 100 words campaign \| Royal Irish Academywww.ria.ie/100words	11
Art and Architecture of Ireland \| Royal Irish Academywww.ria.ie/research-projects/archive/art-and-architecture-ireland	11
Covid-19 Research Response \| Royal Irish Academywww.ria.ie/covid-19-research-response	11

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Royal Irish Academy, Dublin

Where this issue has occurred