Admission & Financial Aid | Amherst College

Arts & Museums | Amherst College

News & Events | Amherst College

Library | Amherst College

My Amherst | Amherst College

Home | Amherst College

Amherst in Videos | News & Events | Amherst College

Press Releases | News & Events | Amherst College

Visiting | Amherst College

Association of Amherst Students (AAS) | Campus Life | Amherst College

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

February 2025

January 2025

Amherst College

Title / URL	Issues
Admission & Financial Aid \| Amherst Collegewww.amherst.edu/admission	67
Arts & Museums \| Amherst Collegewww.amherst.edu/arts	67
News & Events \| Amherst Collegewww.amherst.edu/news	55
Library \| Amherst Collegewww.amherst.edu/library	52
My Amherst \| Amherst Collegewww.amherst.edu/myamherst	44
Home \| Amherst Collegewww.amherst.edu/	42
Amherst in Videos \| News & Events \| Amherst Collegewww.amherst.edu/news/amherst-videos	40
Press Releases \| News & Events \| Amherst Collegewww.amherst.edu/news/press-releases	39
Visiting \| Amherst Collegewww.amherst.edu/visiting	37
Association of Amherst Students (AAS) \| Campus Life \| Amherst Collegewww.amherst.edu/campuslife/aas	34

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Amherst College

Where this issue has occurred