Focus Order
When users navigate with the keyboard, focus must move through the page in an order that preserves meaning and operability.
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
AccessComply removes positive `tabindex` values (replaces with `tabindex="0"` or no attribute), reorders DOM elements when CSS order has been used to visually rearrange interactive content, and adds focus-trap helpers for modal dialogs.
Primary source: W3C — WCAG 2.0 Understanding 2.4.3