Student Life | Union College

Undergraduate Research | Union College

Accessibility | Union College

Information for Faculty and Staff | Union College

About Union | Union College

Make Union Yours | Union College

Page "NOTT" Found | Union College

Life after Union | Union College

Admissions | Union College

How to Apply | Admissions | Union 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

August 2025

July 2025

Union College NY

	Title / URL	Issues
	Student Life \| Union Collegewww.union.edu/student-life	6
	Undergraduate Research \| Union Collegewww.union.edu/academic/research	6
	Accessibility \| Union Collegewww.union.edu/accessibility	6
	Information for Faculty and Staff \| Union Collegewww.union.edu/faculty-staff	6
	About Union \| Union Collegewww.union.edu/about	6
	Make Union Yours \| Union Collegewww.union.edu/make-union-yours	6
	Page "NOTT" Found \| Union Collegewww.union.edu/invented-url-for-404-page	5
	Life after Union \| Union Collegewww.union.edu/after-union	5
	Admissions \| Union Collegewww.union.edu/admissions	5
	How to Apply \| Admissions \| Union Collegewww.union.edu/admissions/apply	5

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Union College NY

Where this issue has occurred