Offer a site map as another route
A page that lists the sections of your site and links to each one. G63 is the site map technique, and its status changes by rule. For the multiple-ways rule at Level AA it is sufficient when combined with other techniques, which is W3C saying a site map counts as one route and the rule asks for more than one. For the Level AAA rule about telling readers where they are, it is sufficient on its own. The technique asks for more than the page existing, as well. Every page listed on the map has to link back to it, and every page on the site has to be reachable by following links that start at the map. A site map nobody can get to from where they are standing is a page nobody reads.
How we find it in an audit
First we check the map exists and is current, which means comparing it against a crawl rather than taking it on trust. Then we test the two directions the technique asks about. Whether every page listed carries a link back to the map, and whether following links from the map reaches everything. A footer link on every template answers the first and is the cheapest part of this to get right. Stale entries get listed one by one, because a map pointing at pages that have gone is worse than no map at all.
How affected users experience it
Multi-level hover menus are close to unusable without a mouse, and they are still the default on plenty of sites. A site map is a flat list of links, which a screen-reader user moves through with one key and a switch user reaches without holding anything open. It is also where people go when the navigation labels do not match the words in their head. Search covers some of that, and search fails the moment you cannot name the thing you want.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
A Site map link in every footer leads to a plain, headed list of links covering every section and every page.
Fails
The only route to the support articles is a three-level hover menu, with no site map and no search.
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.
- G64sufficientProvide a table of contents for long documents
- G125sufficientLink related pages so content is findable
- G126sufficientProvide a list of links to every page
- G161sufficientAdd a site-wide search function
- G185sufficientLink every site page from the home page
- H99advisoryLet users jump between pages of content
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G63: Providing a site map. 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.