East Tennessee State University

First time visit: View without clicking anything

ETSU Undergraduate Admissions

ETSU News

Jobs at ETSU

ETSU Calendar

ETSU Online Degrees & Certificates

Visit ETSU | Tours & Upcoming Visit Events

Quillen College of Medicine

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

	Title / URL	Issues
	East Tennessee State Universitywww.etsu.edu/ehome/	28
	First time visit: View without clicking anythingwww.etsu.edu/ehome/	25
	ETSU Undergraduate Admissionswww.etsu.edu/admissions/default.php	24
	ETSU Newswww.etsu.edu/etsu-news/default.php	21
	Jobs at ETSUwww.etsu.edu/jobs/default.php	20
	ETSU Calendarwww.etsu.edu/calendar/default.php	20
	ETSU Online Degrees & Certificateswww.etsu.edu/online/default.php	20
	Visit ETSU \| Tours & Upcoming Visit Eventswww.etsu.edu/admissions/visit/	20
	Quillen College of Medicinewww.etsu.edu/com/default.php	20
	ETSU Calendarwww.etsu.edu/calendar/	20

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

East Tennessee State University

Where this issue has occurred