Consistency across pages
Pro Growth, Agency and Unlimited plans
Some WCAG criteria are about the whole site, not one page. People learn where the menu items are, what a link is called and where to find help. When one page does it differently, they get lost. No single-page check can see that.
Consistency across pages compares the pages Lumtera Pro has checked, and lists the differences for a person to review.
The four checks
| Check | ID | WCAG | Looks for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Menus list their links in a different order on different pages | consistency-navigation | 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation (AA) | A menu repeated across pages lists the links it shares with most pages in a different order on some of them. |
| Links to the same page have different names on different pages | consistency-identification | 3.2.4 Consistent Identification (AA) | A header or footer link to the same address is named differently on different pages. |
| Help is in a different place on different pages | consistency-help | 3.2.6 Consistent Help (A) | A way to get help (a contact, help, support or FAQ link, a phone number, an email address or a chat widget) is in another region, or in another order, than on most pages. |
| No search box or site map on the pages checked | consistency-multiple-ways | 2.4.5 Multiple Ways (AA) | None of the pages checked has a search box or a link to a site map. |
Each finding names the pages that differ from most, and what most pages do. For example: "The “Main” menu in the header lists the links it shares with other pages in a different order on 2 of the 30 pages that have it."
All four are Needs review:
- A difference isn't always a failure. A section of the site can have its own menu, on purpose.
- Finding no differences doesn't show the site is consistent. It only compares the pages checked.
Confirm with the Consistent across pages checks in a test session.
Where to find it
Go to Lumtera → Checks → Test sessions. The Cross-page consistency card shows the last comparison: how many pages were compared and when, then each difference with its WCAG criterion.
It compares automatically after each scheduled page check run. To compare now, click Compare pages again. The status line says, for example, "Compared 30 pages: 1 difference to review."
At least two checked pages are needed. The more key pages and templates your scheduled checks visit, the more the comparison can see.
Which pages are compared
Every scheduled check, and every desktop browser check on the Page checks screen, keeps a short record of the page: its menus and their links, the names of header and footer links, its help links and chat widgets, and whether it has a search box or site map link. Lumtera keeps these records for the 150 most recently checked pages.
The comparison uses the pages that still have a logged-out desktop result on the Page checks screen. Pages you remove from the results drop out of the next comparison. Signed-in results and phone-width results aren't compared.
On Personal, the records are still kept, so they're ready if you upgrade.
Where the findings go
The findings belong to the site as a whole, not to one page. They are stored as site-level findings and appear:
- in the Cross-page consistency card on Test sessions;
- in the conformance report (ACR), against their criteria. While a consistency finding is open, a manual pass for that criterion isn't enough to mark it "Supports".
You can change the severity of each check, or turn it off, under Settings → Checks.
With consistency checks on, together with form tests, Lumtera's automated checks cover 44 of the 55 WCAG 2.2 A and AA success criteria, fully or in part: consistency adds 2.4.5, 3.2.3, 3.2.4 and 3.2.6. Covering a criterion means a check looks at it, not that the site meets it.
For developers
lumtera_help_lexicon(a free plugin filter) sets the words that mark a link as a way to get help, by kind:contact,help,supportandfaq. Words are lowercase and matched as whole words in the link's name, or as a segment of its address. Add words in your site's language here.lumtera_pro_consistency_checked( $result )fires after each comparison, with the time, the number of pages and the findings.POST /lumtera-pro/v1/consistency/runruns a comparison, for users who can use Test sessions. See REST API.
See Hooks & filters.