City inspectors | Westminster City Council

Volunteering | Westminster City Council

Portals | Westminster City Council

All services | Westminster City Council

Council Tenants | Westminster City Council

Housing news | Westminster City Council

Report it | Westminster City Council

Recycling and rubbish | Westminster City Council

Council Leaseholders | Westminster City Council

Health and safety at work | 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

June 2025

May 2025

Westminster City Council

	Title / URL	Issues
	City inspectors \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/businesses/city-inspectors	12
	Volunteering \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/jobs-and-volunteering/volunteering	10
	Portals \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/portals	8
	All services \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/all-services	6
	Council Tenants \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/housing/tenants	6
	Housing news \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/housing/housing-news	6
	Report it \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/report-it	6
	Recycling and rubbish \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/recycling-and-rubbish	6
	Council Leaseholders \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/housing/leaseholders	6
	Health and safety at work \| Westminster City Councilwww.westminster.gov.uk/businesses/health-and-safety-work	5

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Westminster City Council

Where this issue has occurred