WCAG 3.0 is an active W3C Working Draft in development by the AGWG. Requirements, assertions, the conformance model and reporting tiers are still being developed and may change. The latest published draft is the 10 September 2026 Working Draft; this site follows the editors’ draft, which also includes exploratory provisions.
Navigation blocks that repeat across pages must label the same item the same way each time. Items marked as the current page are exempt.
Why It Matters
People who navigate by searching for a remembered label - screen reader users, voice control users, and anyone with a memory or reading disability - lose their way when the same destination is called something different on the next page.
For each repeated block of navigation across multiple pages/views of the conformance scope or process:
The navigation items within each block of navigation have the same names across all pages/views of the conformance scope or process.
Expected results
#1 is true.
Intent (Upstream)
The intent of this success criterion is to ensure consistent identification of functional components that appear repeatedly within a set of web pages. A strategy that people who use screen readers use when operating a website is to rely heavily on their familiarity with functions that may appear on different web pages. If identical functions have different labels (or, more generally, a different accessible name) on different web pages, the site will be considerably more difficult to use. It may also be confusing and increase the cognitive load for people with cognitive limitations. Therefore, consistent labeling will help.
This consistency extends to the text alternatives. If icons or other non-text items have the same functionality, then their text alternatives should be consistent as well.
If there are two components on a web page that both have the same functionality as a component on another page in a set of web pages, then all 3 must be consistent. Hence the two on the same page will be consistent.
While it is desirable and recommended practice always to be consistent within a single web page, 3.2.4 Consistent Identification only addresses consistency within a set of web pages where something is repeated on more than one page in the set.
This relates to consistency and terminology within blocks of navigation. The consistent ordering of blocks of navigation within a page/view is covered by ‘Consistent relative order’.
W3C Threads on This Provision
1 GitHub thread carrying 0 comments,
fetched from w3c/wcag3 by the
tracker. Titles, numbers and states are the threads' own.
Nobody has read these threads and written up the positions yet, so
only the threads themselves are listed.
The labeling of navigation items within blocks of navigation that are repeated on multiple pages/views in the conformance scope or process is consistent.
:::except-when
* Labels for navigation items that are marked as 'current' within the conformance scope or process.
:::
:::ednote
This relates to consistency and terminology within blocks of navigation. The consistent ordering of blocks of navigation within a page/view is covered by 'Consistent relative order'.
:::