Find a person - University of Victoria

Search - University of Victoria

404 error - University of Victoria

A-Z list - University of Victoria

Conduct your research - ORS - UVic

Home - Faculty & staff - University of Victoria

Home - Alumni - University of Victoria

Maps & buildings - University of Victoria

Home - Graduate admissions - University of Victoria

Home - Students - 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

May 2025

April 2025

University of Victoria

Title / URL	Issues
Find a person - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/search/people/index.php	43
Search - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/search/index.php	41
404 error - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/invented-url-for-404-page	41
A-Z list - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/search/a-z-list/index.php	31
Conduct your research - ORS - UVicwww.uvic.ca/research-services/index.php	9
Home - Faculty & staff - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/faculty-staff/index.php	6
Home - Alumni - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/alumni/index.php	4
Maps & buildings - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/search/maps-buildings/index.php	4
Home - Graduate admissions - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/graduate/index.php	4
Home - Students - University of Victoriawww.uvic.ca/students/index.php	4

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

University of Victoria

Where this issue has occurred