Students' landing page

Staff landing page

Research policy and governance

Human Resources

Support for doctoral students

Exams and assessments

Conflict in the Middle East

Staff learning and development

University finance system

About the 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

March 2025

February 2025

University of Bath

Title / URL	Issues
Students' landing pagewww.bath.ac.uk/students/	65
Staff landing pagewww.bath.ac.uk/staff/	57
Research policy and governancewww.bath.ac.uk/topics/research-policy-and-governance/	56
Human Resourceswww.bath.ac.uk/professional-services/human-resources/	52
Support for doctoral studentswww.bath.ac.uk/campaigns/support-for-doctoral-students/	51
Exams and assessmentswww.bath.ac.uk/topics/exams-and-assessments/	48
Conflict in the Middle Eastwww.bath.ac.uk/announcements/conflict-in-the-middle-east/	47
Staff learning and developmentwww.bath.ac.uk/topics/staff-learning-and-development/	46
University finance systemwww.bath.ac.uk/topics/university-finance-system/	46
About the Universitywww.bath.ac.uk/topics/about-the-university/	44

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

University of Bath

Where this issue has occurred