All events | University of Ottawa

Gazette | University of Ottawa

Library | Library

Emergency | University of Ottawa

uOttawa News | About us

Page d'accueil | Université d'Ottawa

Giving | Giving

Graduate studies | Study

Search | University of Ottawa

Academic support | Study

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

University of Ottawa

	Title / URL	Issues
	All events \| University of Ottawawww.uottawa.ca/en/events-all	49
	Gazette \| University of Ottawawww.uottawa.ca/en/gazette-news	45
	Library \| Librarywww.uottawa.ca/library/	37
	Emergency \| University of Ottawawww.uottawa.ca/en/emergency	35
	uOttawa News \| About uswww.uottawa.ca/about-us/media	35
	Page d'accueil \| Université d'Ottawawww.uottawa.ca/fr	34
	Giving \| Givingwww.uottawa.ca/giving/	33
	Graduate studies \| Studywww.uottawa.ca/study/graduate-studies	32
	Search \| University of Ottawawww.uottawa.ca/en/search	31
	Academic support \| Studywww.uottawa.ca/study/academic-support	31

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

University of Ottawa

Where this issue has occurred