This translation has not been editorially reviewed yet. The German version is authoritative. Deutsche Fassung
Accessibility
Why must the menu be built the same way on every page?
The menu must be built the same way on every page, because visitors memorise its order and rely on it without looking. Anyone who has once learned that "Contact" is the last menu item finds it on every subpage without searching. If the items move to different spots from page to page, orientation starts over from scratch every time. WCAG criterion 3.2.3 therefore requires consistent navigation.
Who a consistent order specifically helps
A shop that rearranges its shelves every night would lose its regular customers — the same is true for websites. Blind visitors have the menu read aloud and, after a short time, jump straight to a target: third item, "Services". If the next page suddenly shows "News" there instead, every learned jump lands nowhere. People with learning difficulties or memory problems build their confidence entirely on repetition; every reshuffle sets them back. And people with motor impairments, for whom every action costs effort, need many times the steps when menus get rearranged. The criterion allows growth: new items may be added. The order of existing items stays the same.
How the audit service checks consistent navigation
Consistency can only be judged by comparing several pages — that's exactly the limit of an automated single-page measurement. Our report therefore lays its cards on the table: it lists every single WCAG criterion and states for 3.2.3 that a human must judge here. At the Gold Standard level, an auditor opens several pages of your site side by side, compares the main menu, footer, and search field, and judges whether order and placement match. That way, the report never contains a silent "passed" for something that wasn't measured at all — an empty check counts as a failure with us, never as a free pass.
Examples
Menu changes order
<!-- Startseite -->
<nav><a>Start</a><a>Leistungen</a><a>Kontakt</a></nav>
<!-- Unterseite -->
<nav><a>Kontakt</a><a>Start</a><a>Leistungen</a></nav><!-- auf jeder Seite -->
<nav aria-label="Hauptmenü"><a>Start</a><a>Leistungen</a><a>Kontakt</a></nav>Entries may be added or deleted; the relative order of the recurring ones remains.
- Open five different pages of your site in browser tabs and compare the menu: same items, same order, same place.
- Compare the footer too — that's where mismatched link lists creep in especially often.
- Add new menu items at the end or in a logical spot, without upending the existing order.
- Check special areas such as the shop, blog, or careers pages — their own templates often bring their own menu along.
