Focus Order

What it requires

WCAG 2.0 SC 2.4.3 requires the keyboard tab order to follow the visual reading order — left-to-right, top-to-bottom in LTR languages — and to traverse interactive components in a sensible sequence.

Common failures: positive tabindex values that yank focus out of natural order; CSS order declarations on flex/grid items that visually reorder content without updating the DOM order; modal dialogs that don't move focus to the modal on open.

Common Shopify failure

Theme uses tabindex="1" on the search box to "make it focus first" — pulls focus before the skip-nav and breaks every other interactive element's order. CSS order: -1 on a "promoted" product card so it appears first visually but tabs last.

How to fix it

Prefer natural DOM order, remove unnecessary positive tabindex values, and make modal focus behavior follow an established accessible pattern. Reordering DOM or adding a focus trap requires component-specific testing and should not be applied mechanically.

Merchant QA checklist

• Scan the storefront page where this pattern appears: product pages, collection pages, cart drawer, customer-account pages, and any landing page built with theme sections.
• Confirm the issue is fixed in the rendered browser output, not only in the Liquid file. Shopify section settings, app blocks, and third-party scripts can reintroduce the same 2.4.3 failure after a theme edit.
• Re-test the affected component with keyboard navigation and a screen-reader accessibility tree before publishing the theme, especially when the fix changes markup or ARIA attributes.

How AccessComply handles it

AccessComply uses automated rules to check supported patterns in the pages reached during a scan. Some WCAG requirements need human judgment, assistive-technology testing, or access to third-party content and cannot be established by an automated scan. This criterion is generally treated as a guided or hands-on fix pattern. If the app can safely match the issue to supported source code, nothing is written until the merchant says yes (one confirmation for the run, or change by change), and the result is checked afterward. Otherwise the merchant should use the guidance above and independent hands-on testing. The label is not a guarantee of detection, a fix, WCAG conformance, or legal compliance.

Primary source: W3C, Understanding WCAG 2.0 2.4.3