Navigation & links

Navigation is how people decide where to go and links are how they get there. When a link says only “click here”, when nothing in the menu shows which page you’re on, when the single deep menu is the only route to a buried page, or when the navigation reshuffles itself from one screen to the next, finding your way turns from a glance into a puzzle. Good navigation is quiet and predictable — it lets people move through a site on autopilot and spend their attention on the task, not on the map.

Who this affects

• Screen reader users often pull up a list of every link on a page and read them out of context. A screen full of “read more” and “click here” entries, or a bare URL spoken character by character, tells them nothing about where each link goes. Without an indicated current page they also lose track of where they are in the site.
• Keyboard and switch users move through navigation one stop at a time. If reaching a page means tabbing through a deep, multi-level menu every time — with no search or sitemap as a shortcut — the journey is long and tiring, and a reordered menu forces them to re-learn the path on every page.
• Users with cognitive and memory disabilities rely on consistency to build a mental model of a site. Navigation that keeps the same order and the same labels everywhere reduces load; a control that is called “Search” on one page and “Find” on the next, or a menu that rearranges itself, breaks that model and causes mistakes.
• Low-vision and zoom users see only part of the page at a time. A clear “you are here” marker and predictable menu placement let them orient quickly instead of scanning the whole viewport to work out where they’ve landed.

Standards covered

The lessons in this category map wayfinding to the success criteria and laws that require it. Descriptive links, a marked current page, multiple ways to reach content, and consistent navigation satisfy all of them together.

Lessons

• Links & navigation

  Descriptive link text, an indicated current page, more than one way to find content, and navigation that stays consistent across pages — the four fixes behind most wayfinding failures.

  2.4.4 2.4.5 2.4.9 3.2.3 4.1.2

• Multiple ways & consistent navigation

  Offer search or a sitemap, and keep navigation consistent across pages.

• Link text, context & new windows

  Write links that make sense out of context, and warn before opening new windows.