See Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria for important information about the usage of these informative techniques and how they relate to the normative WCAG 2.0 success criteria. The Applicability section explains the scope of the technique, and the presence of techniques for a specific technology does not imply that the technology can be used in all situations to create content that meets WCAG 2.0.
All content.
This technique relates to:
Note: This technique must be combined with other techniques to meet SC 3.2.4. See Understanding SC 3.2.4 for details.
The purpose of this technique is to help users with cognitive disabilities, blindness and vision loss to understand what will happen when they interact with a function on a Web page. If there are different labels on user interface components (i.e., elements, links, JavaScript objects, etc.) that have the same function, the user will not know that they have encountered a component with the same function and will not know what to expect. This could lead to many unnecessary errors. It is also recommended that this approach to consistent labelling be applied across the Web site.
A Web page has a form field at the top of the page labeled "Search". On the bottom of the page is another form field which provides the same function. It is also labeled "Search."
A picture of a question mark is used to steer users to sections of the page that provide additional information. Each time the picture of the question mark appears it has the same text alternative "more information."
A link to the Contact Us page of a Web site has the link text "Contact". At the bottom of the page there is a link that also goes to the Contact Us page. It also has the link text "Contact".
Check that each component is associated with text that identifies it (i.e., label, name, or text alternative).
Check that this associated text is identical for each user interface component with the same function.
Checks #1 and #2 are true.
If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.