Website Accessibility Guide Home

2.4.5 Multiple Ways

MCS Accessibility Team

MCS Accessibility Team
Last Updated July 23, 2020

The following directions are part of a full step-by-step guide to making a HubSpot website WCAG 2.1 AA compliant. These recommendations are intended for websites managed on the HubSpot CMS but can be adapted for other content management systems.

LEVELAA
Principle: Operable
User interface components and navigation must be operable.
Guideline: Navigable
Provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are.

More than one way is available to locate a Web page within a set of Web pages except where the Web Page is the result of, or a step in, a process.

View Official WCAG 2.1 Compliance Techniques

Understanding 2.4.5 Multiple Ways

The Multiple Ways criteria states that you must be able to access a webpage from all other site-pages in more than one way. For example, a main navigation alone is not acceptable. 

This criteria allows users to access information more quickly and efficiently if browsing the site through a screen reader or magnifier. 

If your webpage is, "the result of, or a step in, a process," this rule does not apply. An example of this would be a thank you page, like the below. Because this page occurs as a result of submitting a form, it does not need to be widely accessibly by navigation or sitemap.

Screenshot of the Morey Creative thank you page that says "thank you for reaching out. A tream member will get back to you shortly." Also provides links to the blog, Inbound & Down Podcast, and Question of the Day.

Another practical example would be the WCAG Recommendations navigation on the right sidebar of this site page. The WCAG articles are accessible through this menu, the search menu and the top-level WCAG page, so this passes the criteria.

Recommended Solutions

On the manual intervention side, the inclusion of a footer navigation, sitemap, or search function all meet the Multiple Ways standard. 

For more information, please visit the official W3C article: Understanding 2.4.5 Multiple Ways

Next Article: 2.4.6 Headings and Labels

Questions?

Let us know if we can help you address this specific WCAG Recommendation.