News search | University of Toronto

Site map | University of Toronto

UTogether: Your guide to the U of T community | University of Toronto

Celebrates hub page | University of Toronto

News | University of Toronto

Contacts | University of Toronto

About U of T | University of Toronto

The Bulletin Brief | University of Toronto

Contact U of T News | University of Toronto

Academics | University of Toronto

When selecting a user interface component with the keyboard, the focus indicator must 
not be partly obscured by anything in front of it. This is the stricter version of this check for 
Level AAA.

## 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 2.4.13](https://w3c.github.io/wcag/understanding/focus-not-obscured-enhanced.html)

ensure-focus-is-not-obscured-enhanced

June 2025

May 2025

University of Toronto

Title / URL	Issues
News search \| University of Torontowww.utoronto.ca/news/searchnews	100
Site map \| University of Torontowww.utoronto.ca/sitemap	76
UTogether: Your guide to the U of T community \| University of Torontowww.utoronto.ca/utogether	73
Celebrates hub page \| University of Torontowww.utoronto.ca/celebrates	70
News \| University of Torontowww.utoronto.ca/news	62
Contacts \| University of Torontowww.utoronto.ca/contacts	62
About U of T \| University of Torontowww.utoronto.ca/about-u-of-t	61
The Bulletin Brief \| University of Torontowww.utoronto.ca/bulletin	61
Contact U of T News \| University of Torontowww.utoronto.ca/news/contact-us	57
Academics \| University of Torontowww.utoronto.ca/academics	46

Ensure focus is not partly obscured

University of Toronto

Where this issue has occurred