Social media - University of Victoria

A-Z list - University of Victoria

Accessibility - University of Victoria

Find a person - University of Victoria

404 error - University of Victoria

Search - University of Victoria

Terms of use - University of Victoria

Home - Faculty & staff - University of Victoria

COVID-19 - University of Victoria

Home - Graduate admissions - University of Victoria

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

June 2025

May 2025

University of Victoria

Title / URL	Issues
Social media - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/info/social-media/index.php	100
A-Z list - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/search/a-z-list/index.php	100
Accessibility - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/info/accessibility/index.php	49
Find a person - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/search/people/index.php	43
404 error - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/invented-url-for-404-page	41
Search - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/search/index.php	41
Terms of use - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/info/terms-of-use/index.php	40
Home - Faculty & staff - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/faculty-staff/index.php	7
COVID-19 - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/covid19/index.php	4
Home - Graduate admissions - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/graduate/index.php	4

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

University of Victoria

Where this issue has occurred