News • Purchase College

Alumni • Purchase College

Calendar • News • Purchase College

Library • Purchase College

Visit • Admissions • Purchase College

Current Students • Portals • Purchase College

Faculty and Staff • News • Purchase College

Contact Us • About • Purchase College

New York State University Police • Purchase College

Accessibility • Purchase College

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

Purchase College

Title / URL	Issues
News • Purchase Collegewww.purchase.edu/news/	100
Alumni • Purchase Collegewww.purchase.edu/alumni/	74
Calendar • News • Purchase Collegewww.purchase.edu/calendar/	69
Library • Purchase Collegewww.purchase.edu/library/	67
Visit • Admissions • Purchase Collegewww.purchase.edu/admissions/visit/	63
Current Students • Portals • Purchase Collegewww.purchase.edu/current-students/	53
Faculty and Staff • News • Purchase Collegewww.purchase.edu/faculty-and-staff/	50
Contact Us • About • Purchase Collegewww.purchase.edu/about/contact-us/	49
New York State University Police • Purchase Collegewww.purchase.edu/offices/nysup/	45
Accessibility • Purchase Collegewww.purchase.edu/accessibility/	45

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Purchase College

Where this issue has occurred