All Services - West Lothian Council

RAAC Council Housing - West Lothian Council

Linlithgow - West Lothian Council

e-Books, e-Audio/Talking books & e-Magazines - West Lothian Council

Livingston - West Lothian Council

Scottish Welfare Fund - West Lothian Council

Brown Bins - West Lothian Council

Bathgate - West Lothian Council

Pay for it - West Lothian Council

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

West Lothian Council

	Title / URL	Issues
	All Services - West Lothian Councilwww.westlothian.gov.uk/article/46999/All-Services	72
	RAAC Council Housing - West Lothian Councilwww.westlothian.gov.uk/raac-council-housing	61
	Linlithgow - West Lothian Councilwww.westlothian.gov.uk/linlithgow	49
	e-Books, e-Audio/Talking books & e-Magazines - West Lothian Councilwww.westlothian.gov.uk/eBooks	49
	Livingston - West Lothian Councilwww.westlothian.gov.uk/livingston	48
	Scottish Welfare Fund - West Lothian Councilwww.westlothian.gov.uk/scottish-welfare-fund	47
	Brown Bins - West Lothian Councilwww.westlothian.gov.uk/brownbins	46
	Bathgate - West Lothian Councilwww.westlothian.gov.uk/bathgate	45
	Pay for it - West Lothian Councilwww.westlothian.gov.uk/pay?p=1&direction=previous	40
	Pay for it - West Lothian Councilwww.westlothian.gov.uk/pay?p=1	40

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

West Lothian Council

Where this issue has occurred