Printing - IT Services | UWE Bristol

UWE Bristol students | UWE Bristol

Holiday closures - Term dates | UWE Bristol

Campus and facilities - Life | UWE Bristol

Accommodation - Life | UWE Bristol

How to contact us - Contact us | UWE Bristol

Volunteering and community engagement - Sports, societies and activities | UWE Bristol

Research | UWE Bristol

International study - Courses and applying | UWE Bristol

Centre for Music - Sports, societies and activities | 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
Printing - IT Services \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/study/it-services/printing	76
UWE Bristol students \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/students	74
Holiday closures - Term dates \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/study/term-dates/holiday-closures	68
Campus and facilities - Life \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/life/campus-and-facilities	66
Accommodation - Life \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/life/accommodation	62
How to contact us - Contact us \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/about/contact-us/how-to-contact-us	61
Volunteering and community engagement - Sports, societies and activities \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/life/activities/volunteering	61
Research \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/research	60
International study - Courses and applying \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/courses/international-study	58
Centre for Music - Sports, societies and activities \| UWE Bristolwww.uwe.ac.uk/life/activities/centre-for-music	58

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

University of the West of England

Where this issue has occurred