News - The National Archives

Our role - The National Archives

Commercial opportunities - The National Archives

Contact us - Contact us

20sPeople - The National Archives

Education and Outreach - The National Archives

Get involved - Get involved

Help with your research - The National Archives

Grants and Funding - Archives sector

Visit us - The National Archives

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

August 2024

July 2024

The National Archives

Title / URL	Issues
News - The National Archiveswww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/	62
Our role - The National Archiveswww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/our-role/	56
Commercial opportunities - The National Archiveswww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/commercial-opportunities/	52
Contact us - Contact uswww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/contact-us/	44
20sPeople - The National Archiveswww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20s-people/	42
Education and Outreach - The National Archiveswww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/	41
Get involved - Get involvedwww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/get-involved/	41
Help with your research - The National Archiveswww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/	40
Grants and Funding - Archives sectorwww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/grants-and-funding/	40
Visit us - The National Archiveswww.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/visit-us/	38

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

The National Archives

Where this issue has occurred