Prepare to Surprise the Future | John Carroll University | Cleveland, Ohio

Office of Alumni Relations | John Carroll University

Explore JCU and Cleveland - Admission

John Carroll University Admission

Student Life | John Carroll University

About John Carroll University

Faculty and Staff | John Carroll University

Newsroom

Academics | John Carroll University

Parent Resources

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

June 2025

May 2025

John Carroll University

Title / URL	Issues
Prepare to Surprise the Future \| John Carroll University \| Cleveland, Ohiowww.jcu.edu/	41
Office of Alumni Relations \| John Carroll Universitywww.jcu.edu/alumni	40
Explore JCU and Cleveland - Admissionwww.jcu.edu/explore	38
John Carroll University Admissionwww.jcu.edu/admission	36
Student Life \| John Carroll Universitywww.jcu.edu/student-life	33
About John Carroll Universitywww.jcu.edu/about-us	33
Faculty and Staff \| John Carroll Universitywww.jcu.edu/faculty-staff	32
Newsroomwww.jcu.edu/newsroom	30
Academics \| John Carroll Universitywww.jcu.edu/academics	29
Parent Resourceswww.jcu.edu/parent-resources	29

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

John Carroll University

Where this issue has occurred