Sitemap | Western University of Health Sciences

Office of Title IX & Equal Opportunity - Office of Special Projects

Harriet K. and Philip Pumerantz Library: WesternU

WesternU College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP)

College of Pharmacy | College of Pharmacy

Financial Aid

WesternU College of Veterinary Medicine: A College Without Walls

WesternU College of Dental Medicine: A Full-scope Dental Institution

WesternU College of Graduate Nursing: Begin Your Nursing Career

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

Western University of Health Sciences

	Title / URL	Issues
	Sitemap \| Western University of Health Scienceswww.westernu.edu/sitemap	73
	Office of Title IX & Equal Opportunity - Office of Special Projectswww.westernu.edu/otixeo/	53
	Harriet K. and Philip Pumerantz Library: WesternUwww.westernu.edu/library/	51
	Harriet K. and Philip Pumerantz Library: WesternUwww.westernu.edu/library	51
	WesternU College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP)www.westernu.edu/osteopathic/	50
	College of Pharmacy \| College of Pharmacywww.westernu.edu/pharmacy/	46
	Financial Aidwww.westernu.edu/financial/	45
	WesternU College of Veterinary Medicine: A College Without Wallswww.westernu.edu/veterinary/	45
	WesternU College of Dental Medicine: A Full-scope Dental Institutionwww.westernu.edu/dentistry/	45
	WesternU College of Graduate Nursing: Begin Your Nursing Careerwww.westernu.edu/nursing/	45

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Western University of Health Sciences

Where this issue has occurred