Take your hand off the mouse and try to select a product, add it to the basket and reach the last form step you can safely test. This limited journey can reveal where interaction stops. Do not submit a real order.
Choose a route someone else can repeat
Use a product that requires a colour or size. Record the browser, page and initial state. Move forward with Tab and back with Shift plus Tab. Note whether focus remains visible and the order follows the content. WAI’s introductory checks include keyboard use and focus; they explicitly do not provide a complete assessment.
Start your record with three places:
- Variant selection: Can you reach and operate the required choice?
- Basket: Can you distinguish quantity, removal and continuation?
- Dialog: Can you open it, act inside it and close it again?
Describe a blockage precisely
Fictional example: opening the size guide leaves Tab moving through the dimmed product page. You see the dialog but operate content behind it. WAI’s modal dialog pattern describes focus staying within an open dialog and returning appropriately when it closes.
A useful finding records the trigger, expected action and actual focus location. “The size guide is inaccessible” does not give development enough detail for a targeted repair.
Retest the affected part of the journey
After the change, start before the faulty step and continue to the next meaningful action. Check the return journey too: an accessible opening button is less useful if closing its dialog sends you back to the top of the page.
Add a form message test. Keyboard operation alone cannot tell you whether an error is explained clearly.
Removing purchase-journey barriers covers one agreed journey, up to three page types and five fault types in editable frontend code. Locked platform areas are documented as limits. This does not provide a complete conformity certificate for the shop.
Technical sources: W3C WAI: Easy Checks, W3C APG: Modal Dialog Pattern.