WCAG Failureswcagfail.patternd.io

SC-2.4.5: Site section with only linear navigation

Corpus WCAG 2.2Applies to WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2Level AAAutomatable: no

Summary: No sitemap, search, or alternate route exists to reach inner pages.

Why it fails: Users cannot discover pages except by following sequential links because multiple navigation mechanisms are not provided.

Multi-page: Failure may only be observable together with: SC-2.4.5/p02.

Failure technique

Synthetic specimen — no W3C failure technique.

Understanding

Quickref

Intentional failure — audit this region

SC-2.4.5

This site section offers navigation links only — no search or sitemap.

<nav aria-label="Site">
  <a href="index.html">Home</a> |
  <a href="about.html">About</a>
</nav>
<p>This site section offers navigation links only — no search or sitemap.</p>
Expected audit result

Manual check: Crawl both pages and confirm no search, sitemap, or second path reaches the target page.