Student Affairs | Queen's University

Vice-Principal Research Portfolio | Queen's University

Inclusive Queen's | Queen's University

Home | Human Resources | Queen's University

Accessibility Hub | Queen's University

Information Technology Services | Queen's University

404 Not Found | Queen's University

Contact Queen's University

Leadership | Queen's University

Student Resources | Queen's University

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

Queen's University at Kingston

	Title / URL	Issues
	Student Affairs \| Queen's Universitywww.queensu.ca/studentaffairs/	36
	Vice-Principal Research Portfolio \| Queen's Universitywww.queensu.ca/vpr/	32
	Inclusive Queen's \| Queen's Universitywww.queensu.ca/inclusive/	28
	Home \| Human Resources \| Queen's Universitywww.queensu.ca/humanresources/	21
	Accessibility Hub \| Queen's Universitywww.queensu.ca/accessibility/	21
	Information Technology Services \| Queen's Universitywww.queensu.ca/its/	20
	404 Not Found \| Queen's Universitywww.queensu.ca/invented-url-for-404-page	18
	Contact Queen's Universitywww.queensu.ca/contacts	12
	Leadership \| Queen's Universitywww.queensu.ca/administration	10
	Student Resources \| Queen's Universitywww.queensu.ca/current-students	9

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Queen's University at Kingston

Where this issue has occurred