Browse news | News articles | University of Groningen

Masters | Education | University of Groningen

About us | University of Groningen

Bachelors | Education | University of Groningen

Magazine | University of Groningen

Contact information alumni relations and fundraising | Contact | University of Groningen

Society/business | University of Groningen

Open Science | Research | University of Groningen

Research | University of Groningen

About alumni | Alumni | University of Groningen

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 Groningen

Title / URL	Issues
Browse news \| News articles \| University of Groningenwww.rug.nl/news/	77
Masters \| Education \| University of Groningenwww.rug.nl/education/master/	53
About us \| University of Groningenwww.rug.nl/about-ug/	49
Bachelors \| Education \| University of Groningenwww.rug.nl/education/bachelor/	48
Magazine \| University of Groningenwww.rug.nl/magazine/	47
Contact information alumni relations and fundraising \| Contact \| University of Groningenwww.rug.nl/alumni/contact/	46
Society/business \| University of Groningenwww.rug.nl/society-business/	44
Open Science \| Research \| University of Groningenwww.rug.nl/research/openscience/	40
Research \| University of Groningenwww.rug.nl/research/	40
About alumni \| Alumni \| University of Groningenwww.rug.nl/alumni/about-alumni/	36

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

University of Groningen

Where this issue has occurred