ETSU Undergraduate Admissions

Explore ETSU

Archives of Appalachia

ETSU Graduate School

ETSU News

ETSU Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy

The ETSU/Eastman Valleybrook Campus

Quick Links for Faculty

ETSU Online Degrees & Certificates

Jobs at ETSU

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

January 2025

December 2024

East Tennessee State University

Title / URL	Issues
ETSU Undergraduate Admissionswww.etsu.edu/admissions/default.php	34
Explore ETSUwww.etsu.edu/admissions/visit/	33
Archives of Appalachiawww.etsu.edu/cas/cass/archives/	30
ETSU Graduate Schoolwww.etsu.edu/gradschool/default.php	27
ETSU Newswww.etsu.edu/etsu-news/default.php	26
ETSU Bill Gatton College of Pharmacywww.etsu.edu/pharmacy/default.php	26
The ETSU/Eastman Valleybrook Campuswww.etsu.edu/valleybrook/default.php	25
Quick Links for Facultywww.etsu.edu/home/faculty-links.php	25
ETSU Online Degrees & Certificateswww.etsu.edu/online/default.php	25
Jobs at ETSUwww.etsu.edu/jobs/default.php	25

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

East Tennessee State University

Where this issue has occurred