Keyboard navigation
Keyboard navigation is the ability to operate every interactive part of a website using only the keyboard — Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, Space, Arrow keys, and Escape — without requiring a mouse.
Detailed explanation
WCAG Success Criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard) requires that every page function be operable through a keyboard interface. SC 2.1.2 (No Keyboard Trap) requires that keyboard focus can always move away from any component.
Keyboard users include people with motor impairments, vision impairments who use screen readers, and power users who navigate by keyboard for speed. Mobile screen reader users also rely on similar focus-management patterns.
Common failures: custom dropdowns that ignore Arrow keys, modal dialogs that trap focus indefinitely, interactive elements built from `<div>` or `<span>` instead of `<button>`/`<a>` (so they are not focusable at all), and missing visible focus styles.
How this applies to Shopify stores
Shopify's newer Online Store 2.0 themes (Dawn, Studio, Sense) handle keyboard navigation reasonably out of the box; older themes (Debut, Brooklyn) and most premium themes do not. AccessComply audits every interactive element on a storefront against the WCAG keyboard criteria and patches focus-management gaps in Liquid + JS.
What merchants should check next
Treat this term as a practical audit prompt, not just a definition. Check the storefront pages where the concept shows up in real customer journeys: product discovery, add-to-cart, cart drawer, checkout handoff, account login, and support contact flows. If the issue affects code, verify the rendered HTML and computed browser output after the theme change. If it affects copy or media, keep the merchant-facing wording accurate and easy to maintain.
Primary source: w3.org