Location
Tier 1 · The normative floor
Baseline compliance
What the normative text of WCAG 2.2 requires, and nothing more. Only a failure of this tier is a WCAG failure.
The bare minimum
Information about the user's location within a set of pages is available.
Normative text
Verbatim from WCAG 2.2, W3C Recommendation 12 December 2024. Underlined terms are defined below.
Information about the user's location within a set of web pages is available.
Definitions used (1)
Glossary definitions are normative. Their notes are informative.
- set of web pages
-
collection of web pages that share a common purpose and that are created by the same author, group or organization
Informative notes (1)
Different language versions would be considered different sets of web pages.
Tier 2 · The gap
Usability & user impact
Where content can meet this criterion and still make things harder for people with disabilities. These are not failures of SC 2.4.8, so raise them as usability defects. Known failures, including failures of related criteria, are listed in Tier 1.
Breadcrumbs that only reflect the URL structure may not match how users think about the site.
Tier 3 · The golden path
Recommended best practice
The pattern that meets the floor, closes the gap, and avoids audit disputes. A recommendation, not a requirement.
Show breadcrumbs plus a current-page indicator in the navigation.
W3C's Understanding document and techniques for SC 2.4.8 ↗ are informative: sufficient techniques show ways to pass, and documented failures show common ways to fail, but neither changes what the criterion requires.
How SC 2.4.8 maps to the WCAG 3 draft
From this site's reviewed map to the WCAG 3 editor's draft. It's an interpretation: W3C has not published a mapping.
No provision in the current draft covers location within a set of pages.
Related, not a successor
From WCAG 2.2, section 5.1: “The main content of WCAG 2.2 is normative and defines requirements that impact conformance claims. Introductory material, appendices, sections marked as "non-normative", diagrams, examples, and notes are informative (non-normative). Non-normative material provides advisory information to help interpret the guidelines but does not create requirements that impact a conformance claim.”