---
name: Consistent identification
slug: consistent-identification
category: accessibility
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-25T00:00:00.000Z
definition: Calling the same function by the same name and icon everywhere in a
  product, so a reader who learned it once does not have to relearn it per
  screen.
aliases:
  - name: consistent navigation
    source: wcag
  - name: consistent labelling
    source: community
  - name: same name same function
    source: community
tags:
  - content-design
  - wcag
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - consistent-help
    - overloaded-command
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso:
    - accessible-name
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: "WCAG 2.2: Consistent Identification"
    url: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/#consistent-identification
  - title: "WCAG 2.2: Consistent Navigation"
    url: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/#consistent-navigation
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: the same action has three names across screens
---

WCAG success criterion 3.2.4 asks one question of a whole product rather than of a page: components
with the same functionality are identified consistently. If the button that commits a record is
called Save on one screen, Store on the next and left as an unlabelled icon on the third, every
screen teaches the reader a new word for a thing they already know. Its sibling criterion 3.2.3,
consistent navigation, says the same about repeated navigation: same order, same names, screen after
screen.

The cost is highest for readers who never see the layout. A screen reader user finds controls by name
and builds a mental index of them, so three names for one function is three entries to maintain and
two chances to conclude that this screen does not have the thing they wanted. It is equally a
cognitive load issue: recognition is cheap, recall is not, and inconsistent naming converts one into
the other. The fix costs nothing at build time and is nearly impossible to retrofit, which is why it
belongs in the vocabulary rather than in a late audit.

Consistency means the [accessible name](/accessible-name) as well as the visible label, and it means
the icon too. Two buttons named Save that carry different glyphs are inconsistent to the reader
scanning for the shape, and a matching glyph with mismatched names is inconsistent to the reader
listening. Identical function is the test, not identical appearance: a Delete in a toolbar and a
Delete in a row menu can look different and must still be called Delete. The criterion does not ask
for a house style, only for one name per function.

Two neighbours worth separating. [Consistent help](/consistent-help), criterion 3.2.6, is the same
instinct applied to one specific thing: if a help mechanism is on multiple pages, put it in the same
relative place. And a control that deliberately renames itself as its state changes, the pattern
under [morphing controls](/morphing-controls), is a different question entirely: Follow becoming
Following is one function reporting its state, which is fine, while Save becoming Store on another
screen is two names for one function, which is the failure. If you are unsure which you have, ask
whether the name changed because the state did.