Blog | National Capital Commission

Closures | National Capital Commission

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Careers | National Capital Commission

Land Access Permit | National Capital Commission

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Monuments and public art | National Capital Commission

National Capital Commission | National Capital Commission

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

July 2025

June 2025

National Capital Commission

Title / URL	Issues
Blog \| National Capital Commissionncc-ccn.gc.ca/blog	15
Closures \| National Capital Commissionncc-ccn.gc.ca/closures	12
News \| National Capital Commissionncc-ccn.gc.ca/news	11
Events \| National Capital Commissionncc-ccn.gc.ca/events	10
Event Permits \| National Capital Commissionncc-ccn.gc.ca/business/event-permits	9
Careers \| National Capital Commissionncc-ccn.gc.ca/careers	9
Land Access Permit \| National Capital Commissionncc-ccn.gc.ca/business/land-access-permit	8
Buildings and walls \| National Capital Commissionncc-ccn.gc.ca/projects/buildings-walls	8
Monuments and public art \| National Capital Commissionncc-ccn.gc.ca/projects/monuments-public-art	8
National Capital Commission \| National Capital Commissionncc-ccn.gc.ca/	8

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

National Capital Commission

Where this issue has occurred