Maternity | Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Audiology | Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Health Visiting | Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Gastroenterology | Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Pain Management | Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Dermatology | Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Gynaecology | Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Cardiology | Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Breast Unit | Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Neurology | Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

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

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals

Title / URL	Issues
Maternity \| Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trustwww.swbh.nhs.uk/services/maternity/	100
Audiology \| Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trustwww.swbh.nhs.uk/services/audiology/	59
Health Visiting \| Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trustwww.swbh.nhs.uk/services/health-visiting/	58
Gastroenterology \| Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trustwww.swbh.nhs.uk/services/gastroenterology/	55
Pain Management \| Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trustwww.swbh.nhs.uk/services/pain-management/	52
Dermatology \| Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trustwww.swbh.nhs.uk/services/dermatology/	49
Gynaecology \| Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trustwww.swbh.nhs.uk/services/gynaecology/	44
Cardiology \| Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trustwww.swbh.nhs.uk/services/cardiology/	38
Breast Unit \| Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trustwww.swbh.nhs.uk/services/breast-unit/	37
Neurology \| Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trustwww.swbh.nhs.uk/services/neurology/	37

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals

Where this issue has occurred