University Housing - Home | SIUE

Visit Us | SIUE

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville | SIUE

Graduate School | SIUE

School of Business | SIUE

Transfer | SIUE

School of Education, Health and Human Behavior | SIUE

Online at SIUE

SIUE Military and Veteran Services

Alumni | SIUE

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

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Title / URL	Issues
University Housing - Home \| SIUEwww.siue.edu/housing/	28
Visit Us \| SIUEwww.siue.edu/visit/	28
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville \| SIUEwww.siue.edu/	28
Graduate School \| SIUEwww.siue.edu/graduate/	28
School of Business \| SIUEwww.siue.edu/business/	27
Transfer \| SIUEwww.siue.edu/transfer/	27
School of Education, Health and Human Behavior \| SIUEwww.siue.edu/education/	27
Online at SIUEwww.siue.edu/online/	27
SIUE Military and Veteran Serviceswww.siue.edu/military/	27
Alumni \| SIUEwww.siue.edu/alumni/	27

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Where this issue has occurred