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Testing for Consistent Help

New with WCAG 2.2 is WCAG 3.2.6, Consistent Help (Level A). This criterion ensures that when providing users with a help mechanism on your website, it is located consistently in the same relative location unless the user initiates a change. While this is helpful for all your website users, it is especially so for users with cognitive or memory impairments. If access to help is consistent throughout your website, it makes it easier to find.

Some types of common help mechanisms include: 

  • Webform
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Social media
  • Chatbot
  • Searchable help / FAQ documentation

And possible user-initiated changes can be:

  • Viewport size
  • Zoom level
  • Page orientation

Please note: WCAG 3.2.6 does not require you to provide help or access to help. It only requires that if you provide help mechanisms, they be located consistently within a particular set of related web pages.

Same Relative Order

In the context of WCAG 3.2.6, it's important to stick to serialized order, which is the sequence of things listed behind the scenes, not the visual order. Ideally, what you see on the screen matches this behind-the-scenes order, but it's not a strict rule for meeting 3.2.6 standards. To check the behind-the-scenes order, look into the source code or look at the page with the CSS turned off.

If the serialized order and visual order are not the same, the content may need to be separately tested against 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence and / or 2.4.3 Focus Order.

Testing Consistent Help

When checking for Success Criterion 3.2.6, consider how the help mechanism fits the rest of the content. While testing a page, ensure anything that comes before the help mechanism on other pages also comes before it on the page you are testing. Likewise, things that appear after the help mechanism on other pages should go after it on this page.

For example, the first screenshot is the desktop view of the dropdown box in the DubBot app that includes a link to the Help Center. The second screenshot is a mobile view of that same dropdown box in the DubBot app. Note that the link to the Help Center is in the same relative order in both views. It is located below the "Profile" link and above the "Logout" link.

Desktop view:

Screenshot of the DubBot app dropdown box where users can find the link to the Help Center. This view is from the desktop.

 

Mobile view:

Screenshot of the DubBot app dropdown box where users can find the link to the Help Center. This view is from mobile.

 

The chatbot we use, displayed in the screenshot below, can be found in the lower right corner of the DubBot app as well as the DubBot website.

The chatbot we use that is found in the app and on our website. It is blue circle with a white, rounded edge square in the center with a blue smile.

* Manual testing

The manual testing steps are pretty straightforward:

  • Identify the presence of a help mechanism on more than one page.
  • Verify that it appears in the same relative position on every page.
  • If the design is responsive, repeat the testing steps for each responsive breakpoint. Don't test two different breakpoints against each other.

Yielding one of three expected results:

  • Pass: The relative position of repeated help mechanisms is consistent on all pages within the set of web pages.
  • Fail: The relative position of a repeated help mechanism is inconsistent between pages.
  • Not Applicable: There are no repeated help mechanisms.

 

Resources

Maggie Vaughan, CPACC
Content Marketing Practitioner
DubBot