Search | Utah Valley University

Content Hub at UVU | Utah Valley University

Utah Valley University | Utah Valley University

Alumni | Utah Valley University

Faculty and Staff | Utah Valley University

Visitors and Community | Utah Valley University

Woodbury School of Business | Utah Valley University

College of Humanities and Social Sciences | Utah Valley University

College of Engineering & Technology (CET) | Utah Valley University

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

April 2025

March 2025

Utah Valley University

Title / URL	Issues
Search \| Utah Valley Universitywww.uvu.edu/search/	100
Content Hub at UVU \| Utah Valley Universitywww.uvu.edu/news/	88
Utah Valley University \| Utah Valley Universitywww.uvu.edu/	84
Utah Valley University \| Utah Valley Universitywww.uvu.edu/index.html	84
Alumni \| Utah Valley Universitywww.uvu.edu/alumni/	75
Faculty and Staff \| Utah Valley Universitywww.uvu.edu/facstaff/	74
Visitors and Community \| Utah Valley Universitywww.uvu.edu/visitors/	70
Woodbury School of Business \| Utah Valley Universitywww.uvu.edu/woodbury/	67
College of Humanities and Social Sciences \| Utah Valley Universitywww.uvu.edu/chss/	66
College of Engineering & Technology (CET) \| Utah Valley Universitywww.uvu.edu/cet/	66

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Utah Valley University

Where this issue has occurred