• Success Criterion 3.2.6
  • Conformance level A

Help Link Order Shuffled Around the Footer From Page to Page

3.2.6 — Consistent Help

Scenario

Setting

A video-conferencing app's meeting controls

What’s wrong

Help/FAQ link order shuffled among footer items page-to-page.

Example 

<!-- Dashboard footer -->
<footer><a href="/faq">FAQ</a><a href="/privacy">Privacy</a><a href="/terms">Terms</a></footer>

<!-- Meeting settings footer -->
<footer><a href="/privacy">Privacy</a><a href="/terms">Terms</a><a href="/faq">FAQ</a></footer>

Why it matters

A user who tabs twice to reach FAQ from the dashboard footer has to tab through all three links to find it on the settings page instead.

How to test

Compare help/FAQ link order in the footer across different pages: shuffled order fails.

How to fix

Fix the order of footer help links in one shared component so it can't be reshuffled per page.

<!-- Same footer order on every page -->
<footer><a href="/faq">FAQ</a><a href="/privacy">Privacy</a><a href="/terms">Terms</a></footer>

Outcome

A user reaches FAQ in the same two tab presses on the dashboard and on settings alike.

Who is affected

Keyboard users who count tab presses to reach the FAQ link lose that shortcut whenever the footer's item order shifts.

Learn more

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