Center for Student Engagement

Undergraduate Admissions - Inquiry

Financial Aid

Intercultural Affairs

College of Graduate Studies

Undergraduate Admissions - Apply

Undergraduate Admissions

Undergraduate Admissions - Freshmen

Scholarships

Angelo & Jennette Volpe Library

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

May 2025

April 2025

Tennessee Technological University

Title / URL	Issues
Center for Student Engagementwww.tntech.edu/engagement/index.php	70
Undergraduate Admissions - Inquirywww.tntech.edu/admissions/inquiry.php	69
Financial Aidwww.tntech.edu/financialaid/index.php	62
Intercultural Affairswww.tntech.edu/intercultural/index.php	61
College of Graduate Studieswww.tntech.edu/graduatestudies/index.php	61
Undergraduate Admissions - Applywww.tntech.edu/admissions/apply/	61
Undergraduate Admissionswww.tntech.edu/admissions/	60
Undergraduate Admissions - Freshmenwww.tntech.edu/admissions/freshmen/index.php	57
Scholarshipswww.tntech.edu/scholarships/index.php	56
Angelo & Jennette Volpe Librarywww.tntech.edu/library/index.php	55

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Tennessee Technological University

Where this issue has occurred