Offices and Services | Middlebury

Middlebury College

Middlebury Language Schools | Unlock Your Language Skills

Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

The Arts at Middlebury | Middlebury College

Admissions | Middlebury College

Science and Mathematics | Middlebury

Immersive Learning Abroad | Middlebury Schools Abroad

Emergency Response | Middlebury

Energy2028 | Middlebury

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
Offices and Services \| Middleburywww.middlebury.edu/offices-services	100
Middlebury Collegewww.middlebury.edu/college/	100
Middlebury Language Schools \| Unlock Your Language Skillswww.middlebury.edu/language-schools/	81
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Montereywww.middlebury.edu/institute/	79
The Arts at Middlebury \| Middlebury Collegewww.middlebury.edu/college/arts	70
Admissions \| Middlebury Collegewww.middlebury.edu/college/admissions	63
Science and Mathematics \| Middleburywww.middlebury.edu/science-mathematics	55
Immersive Learning Abroad \| Middlebury Schools Abroadwww.middlebury.edu/schools-abroad/	54
Emergency Response \| Middleburywww.middlebury.edu/emergency-response	41
Energy2028 \| Middleburywww.middlebury.edu/energy-2028	41

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Middlebury College

Where this issue has occurred