Keyboard accessibility on Shopify: what gets in the way, and how to check

What gets in your way on the homepage?

If a pop-up opens when you land, like a sign-up form, focus should move inside it. Your next stop is its first field. You should be able to close it from the keyboard, too, and be right back on the page.

Once you’re past any pop-up, your first stop on a well-built page is a link called “Skip to content.” It jumps you past the header, which repeats on every page, straight to what you came for. Shopify’s free Dawn theme has one.

If your store has chat buttons, each one is an extra stop before you reach your logo and menus. Notice how many there are.

Then try the menus in your header. Each one should open from the keyboard, and when you close it, you should be back on its button.

Watch for small things that show nothing when they have focus. A sign-up teaser left in a corner is one. A sort list in a reviews app is another. You press Tab and nothing on screen changes, so you’ve lost your place. That’s the second rule: you should always be able to see where you are.

Can you choose a size, add to cart and check out?

On a product page, you should be able to pick a size and add it to your cart without the mouse. Whatever your cart does next, you should be able to reach Check out. Anything that opens over the page should work just like the pop-up.

Shopify’s own report on its checkout, from March 2026, says it only partly meets 13 WCAG criteria. Shopify says it’s still working on them, including the order a keyboard moves through the page. So walk through your own checkout by keyboard. Tab should reach every field and the button that pays. The card fields sit in a sealed-off frame of their own, for security, so check that you can get into them.

Who fixes what you find?

• Your theme: your developer, or whoever made the theme.
• An app: its maker. Some apps let you change or turn off the part that’s in the way. Shopify Forms, for one, lets you set its teaser to never show. Otherwise, the app’s maker is the one to tell.
• Shopify’s checkout: Shopify. No store can edit its code. Write to Shopify at accessibility@shopify.com.

What doesn’t a keyboard walk tell you?

A computer is the easiest place to start. This walk doesn’t cover phones or tablets, though a keyboard works with those too.

It isn’t a screen reader test, either. A screen reader says the page out loud, and that’s a different check.