SC 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation
Ensure that navigational elements repeated across multiple pages appear in the same relative order.
- Requirement: Navigational components (menus, sidebars, search fields, etc.) must maintain a consistent sequence across a website to support predictability.
- Flexibility: Items are considered to be in the “same relative order” even if new items are inserted into or removed from the list, provided the existing sequence of the remaining items remains unchanged.
- Scope: This success criterion applies specifically to Web content. It DOES NOT APPLY to non-Web software, mobile native applications, or non-Web documents (e.g., Office/PDF files).
3.2.3 Consistent Navigation: Navigational mechanisms that are repeated on multiple Web pages within a set of Web pages occur in the same relative order each time they are repeated, unless a change is initiated by the user.
SC 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation is part of the accessibility principle Understandable because providing predictable and reliably located navigational elements that are repeated across the website makes pages easier to use. This allows users who are without vision or have limited vision or limited language, cognitive, and learning abilities to more efficiently interact with the website as they navigate between and within Web pages. This SC ensures that navigational elements are presented in the same relative order each time they appear.
Navigational elements are any components that provide a user the ability to locate specific information or functionality across the website. These can be static or interactive elements, and groupings of components can also meet this definition. If a website provides a navigation menu, then those components should be included in the same relative order with regard to the items in the menu and to other content on the page. Similarly, if a website presents a sidebar section on multiple pages with key term definitions, then the website must present the sidebar in the same relative order and location each time it appears on a Web page.
Navigational elements that repeat across a website should be in the same relative order (sequence) from Web page to Web page within a website. Items are considered to be in the same relative order even if other items are inserted or removed from the original order. For example, a website may add a Home link to the navigational menu as the last option once a user navigates away from the Home page. This meets SC 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation as long as all the other navigation links that appear throughout the website are in a consistent order relative to one another.
Home Page:
Contact Us, Quick Links, Site Map, A–Z Index, Social media and email links, Menus for Topics, News, In Focus, How Do I?, Get Involved, and About and a Search field
Other Page:
Contact Us, Quick Links, Site Map, A–Z Index, Social media and email links, Menus for Topics, News, In Focus, How Do I?, Get Involved, About and Home (new menu item) and a Search field.
Impact of Nonconformance with SC 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation
| Type of Disability | Description of Impact |
|---|---|
| 302.1 Without Vision | Users who are blind cannot use a mouse to interact with electronic content and typically use an assistive technology, such as a screen reader, to get audible or other alternative output for the information represented visually. To be able to navigate the content, understand its structure and relationships, and understand the meaning of content represented in graphics and images, the content must provide textual and programmatic cues in addition to the content presented purely visually. |
| 302.2 With Limited Vision | Users with limited vision may have widely different visual perception. Individuals with limited vision may or may not use assistive technologies. Therefore, in addition to textual and programmatic cues necessary for assistive technologies, ICT must also present content consistently and predictably. Users who view content with magnifiers may not pick up alerts, warnings, or other content if such content is presented outside of a consistent and predictable navigation pattern or if the content is not itself viewable at large magnification. Content that becomes distorted when magnified can also prevent some users with limited vision from being able to understand or interact with the content. |
| 302.9 With Limited Language, Cognitive, and Learning Abilities | Some users require more time than average to process information while others may find complicated instructions difficult to follow. Furthermore, some ICT content can distract or overwhelm users, preventing them from being able to interact with or understand other ICT content. Designers and developers of ICT must consider a broad range of cognitive abilities in order to provide ICT that is simple and easy to use. |
Applicability of Success Criteria 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation
| Technology | Applicability of SC 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation |
|---|---|
| Web | Developers can typically re-use code and code templates to ensure that repeated navigational mechanisms occur in the same relative order. Otherwise, developers must simply be aware of the order in which they present navigational mechanisms and present them in the same relative order when repeated over multiple pages. |
| Software | Per the Revised Section 508 Standards, 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation DOES NOT APPLY to non-Web software. |
| Office documents | Per the Revised Section 508 Standards, 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation DOES NOT APPLY to non-Web documents. |
| PDF documents | Per the Revised Section 508 Standards, 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation DOES NOT APPLY to non-Web documents. |
| Mobile Native | Per the Revised Section 508 Standards, 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation DOES NOT APPLY to non-Web software. |