Home - Social Work England

What you need to know - Social Work England

Open learning culture - Social Work England

Procurement - Social Work England

About social work - Social Work England

Board members - Social Work England

Data and research - Social Work England

Contact details - Social Work England

Professional standards - Social Work England

News - Social Work England

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

May 2025

April 2025

Social Work England

Title / URL	Issues
Home - Social Work Englandwww.socialworkengland.org.uk/	10
What you need to know - Social Work Englandwww.socialworkengland.org.uk/cpd/what-you-need-to-know/	10
Open learning culture - Social Work Englandwww.socialworkengland.org.uk/cpd/open-learning-culture/	10
Procurement - Social Work Englandwww.socialworkengland.org.uk/about/procurement/	10
About social work - Social Work Englandwww.socialworkengland.org.uk/about/about-social-work/	10
Board members - Social Work Englandwww.socialworkengland.org.uk/about/board/board-members/	10
Data and research - Social Work Englandwww.socialworkengland.org.uk/about/data-and-research/	10
Contact details - Social Work Englandwww.socialworkengland.org.uk/about/contact-details	10
Professional standards - Social Work Englandwww.socialworkengland.org.uk/standards/professional-standards/	10
News - Social Work Englandwww.socialworkengland.org.uk/news/?page=7	10

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Social Work England

Where this issue has occurred