Bypass Blocks
A mechanism must be available to bypass blocks of content that are repeated on multiple web pages — typically the header, navigation, and announcement bar. The dominant pattern is a "Skip to main content" link as the first focusable element.
What it requires
WCAG 2.0 SC 2.4.1 protects keyboard and screen-reader users from having to traverse the same site-chrome (50-100 focusable nav items) on every page load. The skip link is the canonical implementation: positioned off-screen by default, visible on focus, jumps focus to the page's `<main>` content on activation.
Equivalent mechanisms include proper landmark structure (so screen-reader users can jump to main via the landmarks navigation), and heading-level navigation. Most sites combine all three.
Common Shopify failure
Theme has a skip link defined but its target (`#main-content` or similar) does not exist on the page. Or the skip link itself is positioned with `display: none` instead of off-screen, removing it from the focusable order entirely.
How to fix it
AccessComply patches the theme layout to ensure (a) the skip link is the first focusable element, (b) it uses the off-screen pattern not display:none, (c) the target `id="main-content"` exists on `<main>` in every layout, (d) the link has visible focus styling.
Primary source: W3C — WCAG 2.0 Understanding 2.4.1