WCAG 3.2.6: Consistent Help

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OVERVIEW

Effort:

  • Complexity:Easy
  • Duration:Fast

Important for:

Design

What's it about?

Help options on the site should be easy to find and always placed in the same location.

Examples of help include:

  • contact information in the footer

  • a chatbot

  • a contact form

  • a button to call or send an email

Illustration showing two webpages labeled Page 1 and Page 2. Each page displays a chatbot bubble saying How can I help you? with the same friendly face icon beside it, positioned in the same place on both pages. This demonstrates that help features should be easy to find and consistently located across all subpages.

How to

Depending on your situation, you can implement one of the following options to meet the criterion. For a deeper dive, please refer to the linked WCAG techniques.

  • Help in the same place

    The easiest way to meet this criterion is to include a link to the contact page in the header or footer. This link should appear in the same place on every subpage. By clicking the link, users are taken to a page with contact information.

    Technique(s):

    Notes

    • Exception: Help in responsive views (desktop/mobile)

      The position of the help element must remain the same within a given view. On different views, such as desktop and mobile, it may be placed differently.

            • Two screens are shown. On the first one, a help option appears at the bottom right in the form of a face with a speech bubble saying How can I help?. The screen is then shown again in exactly the same way to illustrate that the help option should remain in the same position. On the first screen, there is an additional help option via a contact link in the header. This does not need to be repeated on the second screen, as long as one help option is consistently available in the same place

              Hint: More than one help option

              If the site provides multiple help options, then at least one of them must always be found in the same location.

            • Illustration of a glowing light bulb with a friendly, smiling expression.

              Hint: Help is not mandatory

              The criterion does not require that help be provided, only that if help is available, it must always appear in the same place.

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