Cookie policy - Website | UWE Bristol

Services - About us | UWE Bristol

Student newsletter - News | UWE Bristol

All news - News | UWE Bristol

Final year checklist - Study | UWE Bristol

Global Centre - Services | UWE Bristol

Privacy policy - Website | UWE Bristol

Research - RISE | UWE Bristol

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 the West of England

	Title / URL	Issues
	Cookie policy - Website \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/about/website/cookies	100
	Services - About us \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/about/services	79
	Student newsletter - News \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/news/student-newsletter	69
	All news - News \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/news/search-results?&a=RISE	68
	All news - News \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/news/search-results	68
	All news - News \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/news/search-results?&a=Research	68
	Final year checklist - Study \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/study/final-year	64
	Global Centre - Services \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/about/services/global-centre	62
	Privacy policy - Website \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/about/website/privacy	62
	Research - RISE \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/rise/research	62

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

University of the West of England

Where this issue has occurred