Academic Programs | San Diego State University

Contact | San Diego State University

SDSU News Listing | News | SDSU

SDSU NewsCenter | News | SDSU

Academics | San Diego State University

SDSU Magazine | San Diego State University

Admissions & Aid | San Diego State University

When selecting a user interface component with the keyboard, the focus indicator must 
not be partly obscured by anything in front of it. This is the stricter version of this check for 
Level AAA.

## 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 2.4.13](https://w3c.github.io/wcag/understanding/focus-not-obscured-enhanced.html)

ensure-focus-is-not-obscured-enhanced

June 2025

May 2025

San Diego State University

Title / URL	Issues
Academic Programs \| San Diego State Universitywww.sdsu.edu/programs	100
Contact \| San Diego State Universitywww.sdsu.edu/contact	88
SDSU News Listing \| News \| SDSUwww.sdsu.edu/news/list?tag=Giving	67
SDSU News Listing \| News \| SDSUwww.sdsu.edu/news/list?tag=Solutions	67
SDSU News Listing \| News \| SDSUwww.sdsu.edu/news/list	66
SDSU News Listing \| News \| SDSUwww.sdsu.edu/news/list?tag=Research	62
SDSU NewsCenter \| News \| SDSUwww.sdsu.edu/news	58
Academics \| San Diego State Universitywww.sdsu.edu/academics	42
SDSU Magazine \| San Diego State Universitywww.sdsu.edu/magazine	42
Admissions & Aid \| San Diego State Universitywww.sdsu.edu/admissions-aid	41

Ensure focus is not partly obscured

San Diego State University

Where this issue has occurred