Help
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
Context-sensitive help is available: help text related to the function currently being performed. A general help page doesn't meet the definition.
Normative text
Verbatim from WCAG 2.2, W3C Recommendation 12 December 2024. Underlined terms are defined below.
Context-sensitive help is available.
Definitions used (1)
Glossary definitions are normative. Their notes are informative.
- context-sensitive help
-
help text that provides information related to the function currently being performed
Informative notes (1)
Clear labels can act as context-sensitive help.
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 3.3.5, so raise them as usability defects. Known failures, including failures of related criteria, are listed in Tier 1.
Help that is technically context-sensitive but terse can still leave users stuck.
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.
Put short help text beside complex fields and steps, with links to more detail.
W3C's Understanding document and techniques for SC 3.3.5 ↗ 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 3.3.5 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.
Successor provisions
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.”