International Students | Study in Scotland | Abertay University

Living in Dundee & Scotland | Abertay University

Facilities and Services at Abertay

Studying in Scotland | Abertay University

News | Abertay News | Abertay University

Careers Service | Abertay University

HR Employee Privacy Notice | Abertay University

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 2025

July 2025

University of Abertay Dundee

	Title / URL	Issues
	International Students \| Study in Scotland \| Abertay Universitywww.abertay.ac.uk/international/	58
	Living in Dundee & Scotland \| Abertay Universitywww.abertay.ac.uk/life/living-in-dundee/	54
	Facilities and Services at Abertaywww.abertay.ac.uk/business/facilities-and-services/	52
	Studying in Scotland \| Abertay Universitywww.abertay.ac.uk/life/studying-in-scotland/	50
	News \| Abertay News \| Abertay Universitywww.abertay.ac.uk/news?pageNumber=102	48
	Careers Service \| Abertay Universitywww.abertay.ac.uk/life/careers-service/	48
	News \| Abertay News \| Abertay Universitywww.abertay.ac.uk/news?pageNumber=2	48
	News \| Abertay News \| Abertay Universitywww.abertay.ac.uk/news?pageNumber=1	48
	News \| Abertay News \| Abertay Universitywww.abertay.ac.uk/news/	48
	HR Employee Privacy Notice \| Abertay Universitywww.abertay.ac.uk/legal/hr-employee-privacy-notice/	42

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

University of Abertay Dundee

Where this issue has occurred