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Month: June 2026

A11y 101 – 3.2.4 Consistent Identification

Why Labels Need to Match Across Pages 

You’re at a party. Someone introduces themselves as “Michael.” You shake his hand, have a nice conversation, move on. Later that evening, you see him again across the room. You walk over and say, “Hey, Michael!” He looks at you blankly. “It’s Mike now.” Weird, but okay. A while later, you spot him by the snack table. “Mike!” you try again. He turns around. “Actually, it’s Mikey.”

You’d stop trying, right? You’d start avoiding this person. Not because you don’t like them, but because the rules keep changing and you can’t keep up.That’s what inconsistent identification feels like on a website.

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A11y 101 – 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation

Imagine walking into your favorite library. You know exactly where the fiction section is. It’s always on the second floor, to the left of the stairs. The librarian knows where you go. Your feet know the way. It’s muscle memory.

It is a week later when you walk in, and suddenly fiction is in the basement, behind the coffee shop, accessible only through a secret door behind the periodicals. The stairs are now an elevator, but it’s on the other side of the building. The librarian has vanished.

You’d feel disoriented. Frustrated. Maybe even a little unsafe. You’re just trying to find a book, not solve a puzzle.

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A11y 101 – 3.2.2 On Input

You’re filling out your taxes. Your cursor lands in the first field. You start typing. And halfway through entering your email address—whoosh!—the form submits automatically.

Now you’re looking at an error page because you didn’t finish. Or worse, you submitted incomplete data and lost what you had typed. Your screen reader says something confusing. You have to start over.

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A11y 101 – 3.2.1 On Focus

If I had a podcast, I would tell you to close your eyes and imagine the following. But this is a blog post…

You’re walking down a hallway, hand out, ready to turn a doorknob. Your hand lands on the knob… and suddenly the door slides open before you touch it. Or worse, the room you thought you were entering is actually a closet full of vacuum cleaners. Disorienting, right? Jarring? A little bit scary?

That’s how a user feels when they tab through a webpage and a piece of content jumps, moves, or redirects them without asking for permission first.

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