Horizon Scanning

All Publications

Practices and Sectors - Slaughter and May

First time visit: View without clicking anything

Careers

Alumni

People

A world of difference

News

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

January 2025

December 2024

Slaughter And May

Title / URL	Issues
Horizon Scanningwww.slaughterandmay.com/insights/horizon-scanning/	19
All Publicationswww.slaughterandmay.com/insights/	19
Practices and Sectors - Slaughter and Maywww.slaughterandmay.com/services/	18
First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.slaughterandmay.com/	15
Careerswww.slaughterandmay.com/careers/	8
Alumniwww.slaughterandmay.com/careers/alumni/	8
Peoplewww.slaughterandmay.com/people/	8
A world of differencewww.slaughterandmay.com/careers/early-careers/	8
404www.slaughterandmay.com/invented-url-for-404-page	7
Newswww.slaughterandmay.com/news/?page=7	5

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Slaughter And May

Where this issue has occurred