WCAG – 2.4.5 Multiple Ways (Level AA)

2.4.5 Multiple Ways: More than one way is available to locate a Web page within a set of Web pages except where the Web Page is the result of, or a step in, a process. (Level AA)

Requirements

  • Ensure that each page can be found and navigated to in more than one ways.
    • In addition to navigation menus, the website/app should contain a ‘Search’ functionality and/or a site map (for large websites), and/or an A-Z index of pages (for small websites).

Why is it important?

  • Different people will have different preferences for how to navigate a website/app and find the content they’re looking for. For example:
    • someone with a cognitive disability may prefer to browse categories to locate content;
    • someone using magnification may prefer to use search instead of scrolling through a lengthy navigation block.

Summary

Give people different ways of finding each page (like searching or browsing links), unless the page is a step in a process. There must be different ways for people to locate and navigate to each page – unless the page is a step in a process (like a checkout process for example).

References

  1. W3C’s detailed explanation with techniques and examples.
  2. Accessibility Guidelines- Github.io