California American Water | We Keep Life Flowing

Missouri American Water | We Keep Life Flowing

West Virginia American Water | We Keep Life Flowing

Kentucky American Water | We Keep Life Flowing

Illinois American Water | We Keep Life Flowing

Virginia American Water We Keep Life Flowing

Pennsylvania American Water | We Keep Life Flowing

Iowa American Water | We Keep Life Flowing

Tennessee American Water | We Keep Life Flowing

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

American Water Works Company Inc

Title / URL	Issues
California American Water \| We Keep Life Flowingamwater.com/caaw/	79
Missouri American Water \| We Keep Life Flowingamwater.com/moaw/	76
West Virginia American Water \| We Keep Life Flowingamwater.com/wvaw/	76
Kentucky American Water \| We Keep Life Flowingamwater.com/kyaw/	75
Illinois American Water \| We Keep Life Flowingamwater.com/ilaw/	74
Virginia American Water We Keep Life Flowingamwater.com/vaaw/	73
Pennsylvania American Water \| We Keep Life Flowingamwater.com/paaw/	71
Iowa American Water \| We Keep Life Flowingamwater.com/iaaw/	65
Tennessee American Water \| We Keep Life Flowingamwater.com/tnaw/	64
Tennessee American Water \| We Keep Life Flowingamwater.com/tnaw/index	64

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

American Water Works Company Inc

Where this issue has occurred