What this criterion requires
More than one way must exist to find any page within a set - navigation plus search, a sitemap, or an index - except pages that are steps in a process.
Who it helps
People who find navigation hard to use benefit from search; people who find search hard benefit from browsing.
Example: fails vs passes
Two or more ways to reach any page: navigation, search, sitemap, index.
How to meet and fix it
- Offer site search alongside the menu, or maintain an HTML sitemap page
Common failures auditors find
- Deep pages reachable only through one long menu path, with no search and no sitemap
Automated scanning catches a share of these instantly - run a free check - and a manual audit covers the judgement calls a tool cannot make.
In PDF documents
For long PDFs this means bookmarks that mirror the heading structure, so users can jump to sections instead of paging through.
Check any document against this and 80+ more automated checks with the free PDF accessibility checker.
- W3C, Understanding 2.4.5: Multiple Ways - w3.org/WAI
- W3C, How to Meet 2.4.5 (quick reference) - w3.org/WAI/quickref
Last updated . Reviewed by the EqualWeb accessibility team.
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