G126Sufficient technique WCAG 2.4.5 Level AA Human testing required

Provide a list of links to every page

G126 puts a list of links to all the other pages in the set on each page. It is the exhaustive version of findability, and W3C is candid that it only works for small sites. Where the list would run longer than the content beside it, the technique makes the page harder to use rather than easier, and W3C says so on the technique's own page. W3C lists it as sufficient for 2.4.5 Multiple Ways at Level AA, when combined with other techniques, because that rule asks for more than one route and no single technique supplies two. A second obligation hides inside this one. A repeated block of links on every page is exactly what 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks is about, so a site that adds this list also has to give people a way past it.

How we find it in an audit

Our reviewers check that the list exists, that it is genuinely complete, and that it is reachable from the pages it serves rather than only from the home page footer. Then we check the cost. We measure the list against the content beside it and tab past it to see whether anything lets a keyboard user get through.

How affected users experience it

For a screen reader user an exhaustive link list is a real navigation tool, because pulling up the links on a page and searching that list by first letter is fast. The same list becomes a wall when it repeats everywhere with no way around it, since it now sits between them and the content every single time. Small site, real gift. Large site, real obstacle.

Passes vs. fails

Passes: one jump past the header. Fails: tab through everything, every page.

Passes

A 'Site map' page links to every page on the site, grouped under headings, and every page's footer links to it.

Fails

A 30-page site has no site map and no page listing what exists, so pages nothing links to are effectively invisible.

Other ways to satisfy this rule

8 guides on this site are filed under 2.4.5 Multiple Ways. W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule when combined with other techniques, so the condition is part of the test rather than a footnote to it.

This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G126: Providing a list of links to all other web pages. W3C publishes its techniques as guidance rather than as the standard, and says so on every one of them. The success criterion is what conformance is measured against, and a technique is one documented way to meet it.