Consistent Help
If a page offers help mechanisms — contact details, a help link, a chatbot, a self-service form — they must appear in the same relative order across every page where they are present. New in WCAG 2.2.
What it asks
When a site provides help mechanisms — human contact info (phone number, email, address), a contact form, a live-chat widget, a self-help link, an automated support bot — those mechanisms must appear in the same relative order on every page where they are offered. The SC does not require help on every page; it requires consistency where it does appear.
The five qualifying help mechanisms are explicitly: human contact details, human contact mechanism, self-help options, fully automated contact mechanism, and a link to any of the above.
How to meet it
- Anchor the help link or contact info in the page footer, header, or a persistent help drawer — somewhere that is present site-wide.
- Drive it from a single component or template so order is consistent by construction.
- If you use a live-chat bubble, keep it in the same screen corner on every page.
- If you offer a phone number, put it in the same location (typically header or footer top line).
- For a multi-step flow (checkout, signup), keep the help mechanism in the same place at every step — moving “Contact support” from the corner of step 1 to the bottom of step 3 is a failure.
Common failures
- A chat widget in the bottom-right on marketing pages and the bottom-left on app pages.
- A “Contact us” link in the header on most pages and in the footer on the pricing page.
- Multi-step checkout flows that hide help on the payment step “to reduce distractions” — moving the location is the failure.
- Help mechanisms only present on some pages of a flow, with no consistent fallback.
Why it matters
This is one of the new WCAG 2.2 Level-A criteria, added specifically to address cognitive accessibility. Users with cognitive disabilities, low digital literacy, or anxiety around web forms often look for help in the same place they remember finding it elsewhere on the site. When the help moves, they may not find it — and they may abandon the task rather than search.
The SC is also short and binary, which means automated tools and audits will flag it readily. Sites with inconsistent help placement should expect this to appear in their 2.2 audit reports.