Volunteering | Westminster City Council

All services | Westminster City Council

City inspectors | Westminster City Council

Events | Westminster City Council

Report it | Westminster City Council

Improving and protecting your health | Westminster City Council

Register for Council Tax | Westminster City Council

Roads and travel | Westminster City Council

Major Works | Westminster City 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

July 2025

June 2025

Westminster City Council

	Title / URL	Issues
	Volunteering \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/jobs-and-volunteering/volunteering	9
	All services \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/all-services	8
	City inspectors \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/businesses/city-inspectors	8
	Events \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/event?page=1	6
	Events \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/event	6
	Report it \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/report-it	5
	Improving and protecting your health \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/your-health	5
	Register for Council Tax \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/council-tax/register-council-tax	5
	Roads and travel \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/roads-and-travel	5
	Major Works \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/housing/major-works	5

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Westminster City Council

Where this issue has occurred