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1.3.4Level AAWCAG 2.1Auto-fix: Yes

Orientation

Content must not be locked to a single display orientation (portrait or landscape) unless a specific orientation is essential.

What it requires

WCAG 2.1 SC 1.3.4 prohibits orientation-locked websites. Mobile users with mounted devices (wheelchair tablets, mounted phones) cannot rotate their hardware; web content that forces portrait-only or landscape-only is inaccessible.

Only essential orientations are exempt — bank-check imaging, piano keyboards, virtual reality. Ecommerce content has no essential-orientation exemption.

Common Shopify failure

Mobile-only theme that uses `screen.orientation.lock('portrait')` in JavaScript. CSS `@media (orientation: portrait)` rules that hide critical content in landscape. Custom video-player overlays that block landscape rotation.

How to fix it

Remove `screen.orientation.lock` calls. Replace orientation-only CSS rules with viewport-width media queries (`@media (max-width: <breakpoint>)`).

Primary source: W3C — WCAG 2.1 Understanding 1.3.4