Provide a consistent and flexible design

Consistency is one of the most important principles behind good interactive design and accessible content. Cross-page consistency helps people efficiently navigate, read and interact with digital content. Being forced to learn the structure of every new page or section can be annoying for everyone but it can make life particularly difficult for some people.

Some users may need to enlarge or magnify elements of a web page in order to see the content. If the webpage is not specifically designed to adapt to being viewed up close, page elements may cease to display correctly and it may become difficult for the user to read or interact with what's on screen. Using an adaptive or responsive layout ensures that the content on the page is able to change to accommodate users at a variety of different viewport dimensions or zoom levels.

On this page

This guidance currently aligns with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and is being updated to reflect WCAG 2.2.

Organisations subject to the Web Accessibility Directive or the European Accessibility Act should refer to WCAG 2.2 (W3C.org), as compliance will be required when the revised EN 301 549 standard (PDF) is published in the Official Journal of the European Union in December 2026.

In this section

References for this section

WCAG 2.1

1.3.4 Orientation (AA)
3.2.3 Consistent Navigation (AA)
3.2.4 Consistent Identification (AA)

EN 301 549 v 2.1.2

9.1.3.4 Orientation
9.3.2.3 Consistent Navigation
9.3.2.4 Consistent Identification

Videos

Reading with and without text wrapping - W3C Digital Accessibility Foundations