Academics at Skidmore College

Pre-College Summer Program | Skidmore College

Search, A-Z index and Directories | Skidmore College

News and Events | Skidmore College

Summer at Skidmore College

Center for Leadership in Teaching and Learning

Summer Session | Skidmore College

Registrar | Skidmore College

Creative Thought Matters at Skidmore College

Off-Campus Study and Exchanges | Skidmore 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

June 2025

May 2025

Skidmore College

Title / URL	Issues
Academics at Skidmore Collegewww.skidmore.edu/academics/	1
Pre-College Summer Program \| Skidmore Collegewww.skidmore.edu/precollege/	1
Search, A-Z index and Directories \| Skidmore Collegewww.skidmore.edu/search/index.php	1
News and Events \| Skidmore Collegewww.skidmore.edu/news/	1
Summer at Skidmore Collegewww.skidmore.edu/summer/	1
Center for Leadership in Teaching and Learningwww.skidmore.edu/cltl/	1
Summer Session \| Skidmore Collegewww.skidmore.edu/summersession/	1
Registrar \| Skidmore Collegewww.skidmore.edu/registrar/	1
Creative Thought Matters at Skidmore Collegewww.skidmore.edu/ctm/	1
Off-Campus Study and Exchanges \| Skidmore Collegewww.skidmore.edu/ocse/	1

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Skidmore College

Where this issue has occurred