How Do I... | Douglas County, WA

Agenda Center • Douglas County, WA • CivicEngage

Land Services | Douglas County, WA

Douglas County, WA | Official Website

Jobs • Douglas County, WA • CivicEngage

Apply For | Douglas County, WA

Accessibility | Douglas County, WA

Pay For | Douglas County, WA

Business | Douglas County, WA

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

May 2025

April 2025

Douglas County, Washington

Title / URL	Issues
How Do I... \| Douglas County, WAwww.douglascountywa.net/9/How-Do-I	17
Agenda Center • Douglas County, WA • CivicEngagewww.douglascountywa.net/AgendaCenter	17
Land Services \| Douglas County, WAwww.douglascountywa.net/271/Land-Services	17
Douglas County, WA \| Official Websitewww.douglascountywa.net/	17
Jobs • Douglas County, WA • CivicEngagewww.douglascountywa.net/jobs.aspx	17
Apply For \| Douglas County, WAwww.douglascountywa.net/143/Apply-For	17
Jobs • Douglas County, WA • CivicEngagewww.douglascountywa.net/Jobs.aspx	17
Accessibility \| Douglas County, WAwww.douglascountywa.net/153/Accessibility	17
Pay For \| Douglas County, WAwww.douglascountywa.net/421/Pay-For	17
Business \| Douglas County, WAwww.douglascountywa.net/35/Business	17

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Douglas County, Washington

Where this issue has occurred