What Is Wrongdoing? | Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner

Commissariat à l’intégrité du secteur public

Avis sur les conditions d'utilisation | Commissariat à l’intégrité du secteur public

Resources | Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner

Case Studies | Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner

Results | Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner

About Us | Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner

Wrongdoing | Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner

News Releases

First time visit: View without clicking anything

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

Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada

Title / URL	Issues
What Is Wrongdoing? \| Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissionerpsic-ispc.gc.ca/en/what-wrongdoing	8
Commissariat à l’intégrité du secteur publicpsic-ispc.gc.ca/fr	6
Avis sur les conditions d'utilisation \| Commissariat à l’intégrité du secteur publicwww.psic-ispc.gc.ca/fr/avis	6
Resources \| Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissionerpsic-ispc.gc.ca/en/resources	5
Case Studies \| Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissionerpsic-ispc.gc.ca/en/case-studies	5
Results \| Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissionerpsic-ispc.gc.ca/en/results	5
About Us \| Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissionerpsic-ispc.gc.ca/en/about-us	5
Wrongdoing \| Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissionerpsic-ispc.gc.ca/en/wrongdoing	5
News Releasespsic-ispc.gc.ca/en/news-releases	5
First time visit: View without clicking anythingpsic-ispc.gc.ca/en	5

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada

Where this issue has occurred