Policies and regulations | University College Birmingham

Higher Education Student Handbook | University College Birmingham

College courses | University College Birmingham

UCB Undergraduate courses | University College Birmingham

Find a course | Study | University College Birmingham

Course Finder | University College Birmingham

UCB Postgraduate courses | University College Birmingham

Data protection (GDPR) | University College Birmingham

Business | University College Birmingham

Living in Birmingham | University College Birmingham

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

University College Birmingham

	Title / URL	Issues
	Policies and regulations \| University College Birminghamwww.ucb.ac.uk/about-us/policies-and-regulations/	100
	Higher Education Student Handbook \| University College Birminghamwww.ucb.ac.uk/higher-education-student-handbook/	100
	College courses \| University College Birminghamwww.ucb.ac.uk/study/courses/college/	100
	UCB Undergraduate courses \| University College Birminghamwww.ucb.ac.uk/study/courses/undergraduate/	100
	Find a course \| Study \| University College Birminghamwww.ucb.ac.uk/study/courses/	100
	Course Finder \| University College Birminghamwww.ucb.ac.uk/study/course-finder/	100
	UCB Postgraduate courses \| University College Birminghamwww.ucb.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate/	76
	Data protection (GDPR) \| University College Birminghamwww.ucb.ac.uk/about-us/data-protection-resources-gdpr/	76
	Business \| University College Birminghamwww.ucb.ac.uk/business/	73
	Living in Birmingham \| University College Birminghamwww.ucb.ac.uk/student-life/living-in-birmingham/	68

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

University College Birmingham

Where this issue has occurred