Understanding Success Criterion 3.2.6: Consistent Help | WAI | W3C

Understanding Success Criterion 3.2.6: Consistent Help | WAI | W3C
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Understanding
SC 3.2.6
Consistent Help (Level A)
In Brief
Goal
Make it easier to find help and support.
What to do
Put help in the same place when it is on multiple pages.
Why it's important
People who need help can find it more easily if it's in the same place.
Success Criterion (SC)
If a
web page
contains any of the following help
mechanisms
, and those mechanisms are repeated on multiple web pages within a
set of web pages
, they occur in the same order relative to other page content, unless a change is initiated by the user:
Human contact details;
Human contact mechanism;
Self-help option;
A fully automated contact mechanism.
Note 1
Help mechanisms may be provided directly on the page, or may be provided via a direct link to a different page containing the information.
Note 2
For this success criterion, "the same order relative to other page content" can be thought of as how the content is ordered when the page is serialized. The visual position of a help mechanism is likely to be consistent across pages for the same page variation (e.g., CSS break-point). The user can initiate a change, such as changing the page's zoom or orientation, which may trigger a different page variation. This criterion is concerned with relative order across pages displayed in the same page variation (e.g., same zoom level and orientation).
Errata
Harmonizing occurrences of "breakpoint" to be one word
View all errata
Intent
The intent of this success criterion is to ensure users can find help for completing tasks on a website, when it is available. When the placement of the help mechanism is kept consistent across a set of pages, users looking for help will find it easier to identify. This is distinct from interface-level help, such as contextual help, features like spell checkers, and instructional text in a form.
Locating the help mechanism in a consistent location across pages makes it easier for users to find it. For example, when a mechanism or link is located in the header of one web page, it will be easier to find if it is in the header of other pages. The help mechanism, such as a contact phone number, may be provided directly on the page, or it may also be a direct link to a contact page. Regardless of which approach is used, the mechanism must be located in the same relative order on each page within the set of pages.
When testing this Success Criterion, it is the help item which is relative to the rest of the content. When testing a page, other content that is present across the set of web pages and is before the help item should be before the help item on this page. Items which are after the help item on other pages should be after the help item on this page.
If the help item is visually in a different location, but in the same serial order, that is not helpful from a user's point of view, but it would not fail this criterion.
When having problems completing a task on a website (or part of a website, what we call a
set of web pages
), people with some types of disabilities may not be able to work through the issue without further help. Issues could include difficulty:
completing a form, or finding a document or page which provides information required to complete a task.
Without help, some users may abandon the task. They may also fail to correctly complete a task, or they may require assistance from people who do not necessarily keep private information secure.
While it is recommended to consistently implement a help mechanism across a set of web pages, this criterion specifically pertains to pages that do include such a mechanism. Therefore, the absence of a help mechanism on certain pages within a set does not constitute a violation.
Limitations and Exceptions
It is not the intent of this success criterion to require authors to provide help or access to help. The Criterion only requires that
when
one of the listed forms of help is available across multiple pages that it be in a consistent location. It does not require authors to provide help information on PDFs or other static documents that may be available for viewing/download from the web pages. PDFs and other static documents are not considered part of the "
set of web pages
" from which they are downloaded.
It is also not the intent of this success criterion to require a human be available at all times. Ideally, if the human contact is not available during certain hours or certain days then information would be provided so the user can tell when it will be available.
This success criterion only requires help mechanisms to be consistent
within
a particular
set of web pages
. Some complex websites consist of multiple different sets of web pages with different purposes. For example, a web-based spreadsheet application might have one set of pages for editing spreadsheets and a separate set of pages for marketing the application. This success criterion would allow the different sets of web pages to use different help mechanism locations. However, it is best if help mechanisms are located as consistently as possible even among different related sets of web pages.
This success criterion contains an exception when "a change is initiated by the user." This exception is intended to cover cases where a user performs an action with the intent of changing the display or layout of a page, such as changing the zoom level, orientation, or viewport size. Help mechanism locations may change in response to such a user-initiated change; as the criterion's second note clarifies, "this criterion is concerned with relative order across pages displayed in the same page variation (e.g., same zoom level and orientation)."
This exception allows the location in a smaller viewport to be different than in a larger viewport. However, it is best if the mechanism or link is consistent across a set of web pages. A consistent location, both visually and programmatically, is the most usable.
This exception is
not
intended to treat every action that a user might initiate as a "change"; to qualify for the exception, the user must be initiating an action that would reasonably be expected to change the relative order of components within a page. For example, merely navigating between pages within a set of web pages is not a "change initiated by the user" for the purposes of this exception. Similarly, logging into or out of a page would not typically qualify, unless logging in would present the user with a distinct
set of web pages
Help Mechanisms
Typical help mechanisms include:
Human contact details such as a phone number, email address, hours of operation.
Human contact mechanism such as a messaging system, chat client, contact form, social media channel.
Self-help option such as an up-to-date Frequently Asked Questions, How Do I page, Support page.
A fully automated contact mechanism such as a chatbot.
The order of the types of help listed in the success criterion does not imply priority.
Support for people with cognitive and learning disabilities
This section is not required by the Consistent Help success criterion, but provides advice related to
Making Content Usable for People with Cognitive and Learning Disabilities
The human contact details enable users to connect with the organization or the part of the organization that can assist with the content. For example, an online jobs / recruitment portal may provide a contact method for the team that supports the recruitment portal and not a catch-all for the entire company. Each layer of contact added prolongs the time before the user will receive help.
The human contact mechanism enables a person to express what they are looking for using their own words. For some with cognitive disabilities, this may be the best way for them to find an answer to their problem.
For pages for which no human support is available it helps if a self-help option says that no human support is available. Self-help options can go beyond allowing the user to search within the site. Contextual help is still recommended (see
Success Criterion 3.3.5 Help
for more information), but a self-help option provides a single location that makes it easier for people with cognitive disabilities to understand what help is available without having to hunt for it. While some people may easily be able to identify that no support would be available for a particular type of website, this may not be apparent to some users with disabilities.
Chatbots can work for many people, and particularly for people with cognitive disabilities if they:
recognize misspelled words,
provide human contact details if the chatbot is unable to provide a satisfactory response after 3 attempts, and
can be dismissed with a single interaction, and recalled using a link or button.
This criterion does not require that a site provide a help mechanism. However, when help is available:
People who may have difficulty locating help are more likely to find it and complete their task.
Users that experience cognitive fatigue or cognitive shut down will be able to reserve their energy for the task, instead of using it to find support.
Enabling users (especially those with cognitive disabilities) to find solutions while expressing their question using their own words (for example by interacting with a chatbot) increases their chances of success for completing a task.
Self help methods beyond the site, such as using internet search to find the contact information for an organization, can be too difficult. Further, the user's disability may make it more difficult to find the help available (such as a "contact us" link, phone number, or support page) if the information is not consistently present within a few interactions (e.g., displayed in the header, or via a menu). In addition, for some users with disabilities, struggling to complete a task on a site may cause additional cognitive challenges when searching for help within the site.
When a user is quickly able to find help, they are able to complete the task even if they encounter challenges.
Benefits
People who may have difficulty locating help are more likely to find it when it is consistently located.
Examples
On-line job application: Some of the application questions may be hard for new job seekers to understand even after reading the contextual help. For example, the form may request their identification number, but they may have several and not know which one to enter. Consistently located contact information will enable them to use phone or email so they can get an answer to their question.
Medical appointment scheduling form: When the service a patient is trying to book is not easily findable within the interface, they may need human help. A consistently located messaging option (chat client) enables them to quickly interact with a staff person that can help, without requiring them to manage a second interface.
Finding a specific policy or procedure: An employee who needs to complete a work task may have difficulty locating the specific policy or procedure document on their employer's website. A consistently located "How Do I" page may include the information that enables them to independently complete this task.
Related Resources
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.
Cognitive Accessibility Gap Analysis Topic 6: Familiar Interface
Making Content Usable for People with Cognitive and Learning Disabilities 4.8.5 Make it Easy to Find Help and Give Feedback
Techniques
Each numbered item in this section represents a technique or combination of techniques
that the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group deems sufficient for meeting this success criterion.
A technique may go beyond the minimum requirement of the criterion. There may be other ways of meeting the criterion not covered by these techniques.
For information on using other techniques, see
Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria
particularly the "Other Techniques" section.
Sufficient Techniques
G220: Provide a contact-us link in a consistent location
Failures
The following are common mistakes that are considered failures of this success criterion by the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group.
Inconsistent Help Location
Key Terms
assistive technology
hardware and/or software that acts as a
user agent
, or along with a mainstream user agent, to provide functionality to meet the requirements
of users with disabilities that go beyond those offered by mainstream user agents
Note 1
Functionality provided by assistive technology includes alternative presentations
(e.g., as synthesized speech or magnified content), alternative input methods (e.g.,
voice), additional navigation or orientation mechanisms, and content transformations
(e.g., to make tables more accessible).
Note 2
Assistive technologies often communicate data and messages with mainstream user agents
by using and monitoring APIs.
Note 3
The distinction between mainstream user agents and assistive technologies is not absolute.
Many mainstream user agents provide some features to assist individuals with disabilities.
The basic difference is that mainstream user agents target broad and diverse audiences
that usually include people with and without disabilities. Assistive technologies
target narrowly defined populations of users with specific disabilities. The assistance
provided by an assistive technology is more specific and appropriate to the needs
of its target users. The mainstream user agent may provide important functionality
to assistive technologies like retrieving web content from program objects or parsing
markup into identifiable bundles.
Example
Assistive technologies that are important in the context of this document include
the following:
screen magnifiers, and other visual reading assistants, which are used by people with
visual, perceptual and physical print disabilities to change text font, size, spacing,
color, synchronization with speech, etc. in order to improve the visual readability
of rendered text and images;
screen readers, which are used by people who are blind to read textual information
through synthesized speech or braille;
text-to-speech software, which is used by some people with cognitive, language, and
learning disabilities to convert text into synthetic speech;
speech recognition software, which may be used by people who have some physical disabilities;
alternative keyboards, which are used by people with certain physical disabilities
to simulate the keyboard (including alternate keyboards that use head pointers, single
switches, sip/puff and other special input devices.);
alternative pointing devices, which are used by people with certain physical disabilities
to simulate mouse pointing and button activations.
conformance
satisfying all the requirements of a given standard, guideline or specification
mechanism
process
or technique for achieving a result
Note 1
The mechanism may be explicitly provided in the content, or may be
relied upon
to be provided by either the platform or by
user agents
, including
assistive technologies
Note 2
The mechanism needs to meet all success criteria for the conformance level claimed.
process
series of user actions where each action is required in order to complete an activity
Example 1
Successful use of a series of web pages on a shopping site requires users to view
alternative products, prices and offers, select products, submit an order, provide
shipping information and provide payment information.
Example 2
An account registration page requires successful completion of a
Turing test
before
the registration form can be accessed.
relied upon
the content would not
conform
if that
technology
is turned off or is not supported
set of web pages
collection of
web pages
that share a common purpose and that are created by the same author, group or organization
Example
Examples include:
a publication which is split across multiple web pages, where each page contains one chapter or other significant section of the work. The publication is logically a single contiguous unit, and contains navigation features that enable access to the full set of pages.
an e-commerce website shows products in a set of web pages that all share the same navigation and identification. However, when progressing to the checkout process, the template changes; the navigation and other elements are removed, so the pages in that process are functionally and visually different. The checkout pages are not part of the set of product pages.
a blog on a sub-domain (e.g. blog.example.com) which has a different navigation and is authored by a distinct set of people from the pages on the primary domain (example.com).
Note
Different language versions would be considered different sets of web pages.
technology
mechanism
for encoding instructions to be rendered, played or executed by
user agents
Note 1
As used in these guidelines "web technology" and the word "technology" (when used
alone) both refer to web content technologies.
Note 2
Web content technologies may include markup languages, data formats, or programming
languages that authors may use alone or in combination to create end-user experiences
that range from static web pages to synchronized media presentations to dynamic Web
applications.
Example
Some common examples of web content technologies include HTML, CSS, SVG, PNG, PDF,
Flash, and JavaScript.
user agent
any software that retrieves and presents web content for users
Example
Web browsers, media players, plug-ins, and other programs — including
assistive technologies
— that help in retrieving, rendering, and interacting with web content.
web page
a non-embedded resource obtained from a single URI using HTTP plus any other resources
that are used in the rendering or intended to be rendered together with it by a
user agent
Note 1
Although any "other resources" would be rendered together with the primary resource,
they would not necessarily be rendered simultaneously with each other.
Note 2
For the purposes of conformance with these guidelines, a resource must be "non-embedded"
within the scope of conformance to be considered a web page.
Example 1
A web resource including all embedded images and media.
Example 2
A web mail program built using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX). The program
lives entirely at http://example.com/mail, but includes an inbox, a contacts area
and a calendar. Links or buttons are provided that cause the inbox, contacts, or calendar
to display, but do not change the URI of the page as a whole.
Example 3
A customizable portal site, where users can choose content to display from a set of
different content modules.
Example 4
When you enter "http://shopping.example.com/" in your browser, you enter a movie-like
interactive shopping environment where you visually move around in a store dragging
products off of the shelves around you and into a visual shopping cart in front of
you. Clicking on a product causes it to be demonstrated with a specification sheet
floating alongside. This might be a single-page website or just one page within a
website.
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