All events | University of Ottawa

Gazette | University of Ottawa

Library | Library

Media | About us

Current students | University of Ottawa

Academic support | Study

Page d'accueil | Université d'Ottawa

Giving | uOttawa

Undergraduate studies | Study

Search | University of Ottawa

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

University of Ottawa

Title / URL	Issues
All events \| University of Ottawawww.uottawa.ca/en/events-all	44
Gazette \| University of Ottawawww.uottawa.ca/en/gazette-news	43
Library \| Librarywww.uottawa.ca/library/	36
Media \| About uswww.uottawa.ca/about-us/media	33
Current students \| University of Ottawawww.uottawa.ca/en/current-students	31
Academic support \| Studywww.uottawa.ca/study/academic-support	31
Page d'accueil \| Université d'Ottawawww.uottawa.ca/fr	30
Giving \| uOttawawww.uottawa.ca/giving/	30
Undergraduate studies \| Studywww.uottawa.ca/study/undergraduate-studies	29
Search \| University of Ottawawww.uottawa.ca/en/search	29

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

University of Ottawa

Where this issue has occurred