Whittier College | 4-Year Private Liberal Arts College

Academics | Whittier College

Visit Whittier | Whittier College

Uptown Whittier | Whittier College

News | Whittier College

Office of Admission | Whittier College

Center for Career and Professional Development | Whittier College

Page Not Found | Whittier College

Office of International Programs | Whittier College

About | Whittier College

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

Whittier College

	Title / URL	Issues
	Whittier College \| 4-Year Private Liberal Arts Collegewhittier.edu/	1
	Academics \| Whittier Collegewhittier.edu/academics	1
	Visit Whittier \| Whittier Collegewhittier.edu/about/visit	1
	Uptown Whittier \| Whittier Collegewhittier.edu/admission/uptown	1
	News \| Whittier Collegewhittier.edu/news	1
	Office of Admission \| Whittier Collegewhittier.edu/admission	1
	Center for Career and Professional Development \| Whittier Collegewhittier.edu/careers	1
	Page Not Found \| Whittier Collegewhittier.edu/invented-url-for-404-page	1
	Office of International Programs \| Whittier Collegewhittier.edu/academics/oip	1
	About \| Whittier Collegewhittier.edu/about	1

Ensure focus is not fully obscured

Whittier College

Where this issue has occurred