News | University of Cambridge

Spotlight on... | University of Cambridge

Topics | University of Cambridge

University A-Z | University of Cambridge

Civic and community engagement | University of Cambridge

Horizons magazine | University of Cambridge

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

January 2025

December 2024

University of Cambridge

Title / URL	Issues
News \| University of Cambridgewww.cam.ac.uk/news?ucam-ref=home-menu	100
Spotlight on... \| University of Cambridgewww.cam.ac.uk/research/spotlights-on	100
News \| University of Cambridgewww.cam.ac.uk/news?ucam-ref=home-news	100
News \| University of Cambridgewww.cam.ac.uk/news?ucam-ref=global-header	100
Topics \| University of Cambridgewww.cam.ac.uk/topics	100
Spotlight on... \| University of Cambridgewww.cam.ac.uk/research/spotlights-on?ucam-ref=global-footer	100
University A-Z \| University of Cambridgewww.cam.ac.uk/university-a-z?ucam-ref=global-footer	100
Civic and community engagement \| University of Cambridgewww.cam.ac.uk/about-the-university/civic-engagement	100
News \| University of Cambridgewww.cam.ac.uk/news	100
Horizons magazine \| University of Cambridgewww.cam.ac.uk/research/research-at-cambridge/horizons-magazine	92

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

University of Cambridge

Where this issue has occurred