Equivalent resources

Resources that are not the same can nonetheless be equivalent if they serve the same purpose and cover equally well the expectation of the user navigating to them. This usually involve that the key content is the same.

Web pages and documents (e.g. PDFs, office formats etc.) may be equivalent resources, even if the resources:

  • are located on different URLs, including different domains; or
  • present different navigation options, e.g. through bread crumbs or local sub menus; or
  • contain different amounts of information and/or differently worded information; or
  • use different layouts.

The user's expectations for the resource can be formed by different things, e.g. the name of the link leading to the resource, with or without the context around the link. This depends on the accessibility requirement that is tested.

If the same content is presented in different formats or languages, the format or language itself is often part of the purpose of the content, e.g. an article as both HTML and PDF, an image in different sizes, or an article in two different languages. If getting the same content in different formats or languages is the purpose of having separate links, the resources are not equivalent.