Office of Student Financial Assistance | SMCM

Office of Admission | SMCM

Learn More about St. Mary’s College of Maryland – Office of Admission | SMCM

Tuition and Fees – Office of Student Financial Assistance | SMCM

Presidential Search | SMCM

St. Mary's College of Maryland – The National Public Honors College

Signature Programs | SMCM

Beyond St. Mary’s College | SMCM

New Student Information | SMCM

Academics | SMCM

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

June 2025

May 2025

Saint Mary's College of Maryland

Title / URL	Issues
Office of Student Financial Assistance \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/osfa/	15
Office of Admission \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/admissions/	10
Learn More about St. Mary’s College of Maryland – Office of Admission \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/admissions/learn-more/	9
Tuition and Fees – Office of Student Financial Assistance \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/osfa/tuitionfees/	8
Presidential Search \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/presidential-search/	1
St. Mary's College of Maryland – The National Public Honors Collegewww.smcm.edu/	1
Signature Programs \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/signature-programs/	1
Beyond St. Mary’s College \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/beyond-st-marys/	1
New Student Information \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/newstudents/	1
Academics \| SMCMwww.smcm.edu/academics/	1

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Saint Mary's College of Maryland

Where this issue has occurred