South Hams | South Hams District Council

Environment and Nuisance | South Hams District Council

Accessibility | South Hams District Council

A Guide to Waste and Recycling | South Hams District Council

Benefits and Support | South Hams District Council

Council Tax | South Hams District Council

Planning | South Hams District Council

Tree Ownership and Maintenance | South Hams District Council

Licensing | South Hams District Council

News | South Hams District Council

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

South Hams District Council

Title / URL	Issues
South Hams \| South Hams District Councilwww.southhams.gov.uk/	90
Environment and Nuisance \| South Hams District Councilwww.southhams.gov.uk/environment-and-nuisance	16
Accessibility \| South Hams District Councilwww.southhams.gov.uk/accessibility	16
A Guide to Waste and Recycling \| South Hams District Councilwww.southhams.gov.uk/waste-and-recycling/guide-waste-and-recycling	16
Benefits and Support \| South Hams District Councilwww.southhams.gov.uk/benefits-and-support	16
Council Tax \| South Hams District Councilwww.southhams.gov.uk/council-tax	14
Planning \| South Hams District Councilwww.southhams.gov.uk/planning	14
Tree Ownership and Maintenance \| South Hams District Councilwww.southhams.gov.uk/trees/tree-ownership-and-maintenance	14
Licensing \| South Hams District Councilwww.southhams.gov.uk/licensing	14
News \| South Hams District Councilwww.southhams.gov.uk/news?page=1	14

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

South Hams District Council

Where this issue has occurred