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.

The Requirement

Components that have the same functionality within a set of web pages must be identified consistently.

That means if you call the search button “Search” on the homepage, it better be “Search” on the about page, the blog, and the contact page. Not “Find.” Not “Lookup.” Not a magnifying glass icon with no text label on one page and “Search” on another.

The label—the text that identifies the component—needs to stay the same wherever that component does the same thing.

What Counts as “Identification”?

This is where people get tripped up, so let’s be precise. Identification covers:

• Visible text labels: The words on the button or link
• Accessible names: What screen readers announce (via aria-label, aria-labelledby, or inner text)
• Icons with text alternative: If you use a magnifying glass for search on one page, don’t swap it for a binoculars icon on another

It also covers alt text on images used as functional controls. If your “Print” button uses a printer icon with alt="Print" on the invoice page, that same icon shouldn’t have alt="Output" on the reports page.

How This Differs From 3.2.3

Good question. WCAG can be full of little nuances in separate rules that when packed together can be intimidating.

3.2.3 (Consistent Navigation) is about placement. Keep the nav in the same spot, in the same order.

3.2.4 (Consistent Identification) is about labeling. Keep the names and icons the same.

They’re siblings. One handles the map, the other handles the street signs. Both need to be right for the user to reach their destination.

Where I See Opportunity

It’s not loud like a missing focus ring or a crashed modal. It’s the kind of thing that creeps in during normal development because different teams work on different pages and nobody enforced a shared vocabulary.

• The homepage team calls it “My Account.” The dashboard team calls it “Profile.” Same destination, different names.
• The search field has placeholder="Search" on the blog but aria-label="Find articles" on the archive page. Same function, different accessible name (with added issues for another time).
• A “Save” button is a floppy disk icon on one page and a bookmark icon on another. Same action, different mental model.

Each one seems harmless in isolation. Put them together and you’ve got a user who doesn’t trust the interface anymore.

The “Set of Web Pages” Detail

Worth noting: this criterion applies within a set of web pages. That doesn’t necessarily mean your entire site. It means pages that share common functionality—like the pages of your e-commerce checkout, or the docs section of your product, or the dashboard views of your app.

If you have a standalone marketing landing page that uses different conventions than your app’s internal pages, that’s not necessarily a failure. But if pages are part of the same functional ecosystem, the labels need to align.

User Impact

When we change labels inconsistently, we’re not just confusing sighted users. We’re actively undermining the coping strategies that assistive technology users depend on.

Screen reader users build expectations. They hear “Search” on one page and learn that this button does X. When they encounter the same function on another page and hear “Find,” they have to re-evaluate. Is this the same thing? Is it different? Should I trust it?

For someone with a cognitive disability, this ambiguity is paralyzing. The energy spent decoding whether “Submit” and “Send” are the same action is energy taken away from actually using your product.

Consistent identification isn’t about aesthetics or branding.

It’s about building trust through predictability. When the interface speaks the same language everywhere, the user can stop translating and start doing.

Wrapping Up

You can pick your words. You can pick your icon. You can pick your friends. You can pick your nose.

You can’t pick your friend’s nose and you can’t change your words or icons labeling controls in a set of pages.

If “Search” is “Search” on page one, it’s “Search” on page fifty. If your print icon is a printer, it stays a printer. If your help link says “Help,” it doesn’t suddenly become “Assistance” on the billing page.

Call things what they are. Then keep calling them that.

Your users aren’t asking for creativity in labeling. They’re asking for clarity. Give them that, and you’ve given them something far more valuable than a clever interface. You’ve given them a place where they know the rules.

Want to discuss this? Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky!