Offices and Services | Middlebury

Middlebury College

Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

Middlebury Language Schools | Unlock Your Language Skills

The Arts at Middlebury | Middlebury College

Science and Mathematics | Middlebury

Admissions | Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

Admissions | Middlebury College

Immersive Learning Abroad | Middlebury Schools Abroad

Energy2028 Homepage | 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 Institute of International Studies at Montereywww.middlebury.edu/institute/	79
Middlebury Language Schools \| Unlock Your Language Skillswww.middlebury.edu/language-schools/	78
The Arts at Middlebury \| Middlebury Collegewww.middlebury.edu/college/arts	70
Science and Mathematics \| Middleburywww.middlebury.edu/science-mathematics	65
Admissions \| Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Montereywww.middlebury.edu/institute/admissions	64
Admissions \| Middlebury Collegewww.middlebury.edu/college/admissions	63
Immersive Learning Abroad \| Middlebury Schools Abroadwww.middlebury.edu/schools-abroad/	55
Energy2028 Homepage \| Middleburywww.middlebury.edu/energy2028	50

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Middlebury College

Where this issue has occurred