diff --git a/authentication/serializers.py b/authentication/serializers.py
index 5db04897e1..3ac4c0da12 100644
--- a/authentication/serializers.py
+++ b/authentication/serializers.py
@@ -271,6 +271,7 @@ class RegisterEmailSerializer(SocialAuthSerializer):
     next = serializers.CharField(write_only=True, required=False)
 
     def validate(self, attrs):
+        print("here")
         token = (attrs.get("partial", {}) or {}).get("token", None)
         email = attrs.get("email", None)
         if not email and not token:
diff --git a/frontend/public/scss/notification.scss b/frontend/public/scss/notification.scss
index 8267a942fb..c4a81364ed 100644
--- a/frontend/public/scss/notification.scss
+++ b/frontend/public/scss/notification.scss
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 .notifications {
   position: relative;
-  z-index: 1;
+  z-index: -1;
 
   // HACK: Using this rule to get around styling issues with <p> elements in the
   //       notification content (notification content in Wagtail is configured to be HTML,
diff --git a/frontend/public/src/components/NotificationContainer.js b/frontend/public/src/components/NotificationContainer.js
index fa091a17a1..6358ea43f9 100644
--- a/frontend/public/src/components/NotificationContainer.js
+++ b/frontend/public/src/components/NotificationContainer.js
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ export class NotificationContainer extends React.Component<Props, State> {
 
     return (
       <div
-        className="notifications order-2"
+        className="notifications order-2 tab-index-1"
         id="notifications-container"
         ref={this.headingRef}
       >