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.
Where a block of navigation repeats across a set of pages, the items keep the same relative order on each page.
Why It Matters
Once someone has learned that a link is the fourth item, changing the order makes every page a fresh problem. That cost falls hardest on screen reader, switch and voice users, for whom re-scanning is slow.
For each repeated blocks of navigation across multiple pages/views of the conformance scope or process:
The navigation items within each block of navigation have the same relative order 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 encourage the use of consistent visual layout and source order for users who interact with repeated content within a set of web pages and need to locate specific information or functionality more than once.
Individuals with low vision who use screen magnification to display a small portion of the screen at a time often use visual cues and page boundaries to quickly locate repeated content. Presenting repeated content in the same order is also important for visual users who use spatial memory or visual cues within the design to locate repeated content.
Likewise, users who are blind and navigate through content on pages sequentially benefit from having navigational mechanisms occur in a consistent order relative to the overall source order and structure of the page.
It is important to note that the use of the phrase “same order” in this section is not meant to imply that sub-navigation menus cannot be used or that blocks of secondary navigation or page structure cannot be used. Instead, this success criterion is intended to assist users who interact with repeated content across web pages to be able to predict the location of the content they are looking for and find it more quickly when they encounter it again.
Users may initiate a change in the order by using adaptive user agents or by setting preferences so that the information is presented in a way that is most useful to them.
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
No GitHub issue in w3c/wcag3 carries this provision's label, so there
is no recorded discussion to show. Cross-cutting threads that name no
provision are listed on the
Discussions page.
WCAG 2.2 Criteria That Map Here
From this site's reviewed WCAG 2.2 → WCAG 3 map. The map is
an interpretation, not a W3C mapping: W3C has not published one yet.
The relative order of navigation items is consistent within blocks of navigation that are repeated on multiple pages/views of the conformance scope or process.
:::applies-when
- In a set of pages/views.
:::
:::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'.
:::