WCAG 2.4.8 — Location
A user three levels deep in a docs hierarchy needs to know where they are. Breadcrumbs, a highlighted active nav item, a clear page title — these orient the user. Their absence is disorientation by default.
What this requires
Information about the user's location within a set of pages must be available. Typical mechanisms: a breadcrumb trail showing the hierarchy from the home page to the current page, an active state on the navigation item that corresponds to the current page, a sitemap that marks the current page, or a clear hierarchical page title.
How AI coding tools fail this
When asked to build a docs site, AI tools generate the page layout but skip breadcrumbs. The user lands on a page two clicks deep and the only orientation they have is the URL.
The second pattern: nav items with no visual or programmatic
indication of "active". The same nav appears on every page; the
user can't tell which item corresponds to where they are. Active
state should be both visual and announced (aria-current="page").
The third: breadcrumb implementations that list every parent but don't include the current page, or list the current page as a link back to itself.
Edge cases
aria-current="page"is the standard signal for assistive tech. Use it on the link that represents the current page. The visual active state is separate but should be paired.- Don't link the current page to itself. In breadcrumbs and in
navs, the current page should be plain text or marked
aria-current="page"on a non-link element. - Single-page apps need to update active state on route change.
Components that read from
usePathname()or equivalent will do this naturally; ones that hard-code the active item won't. - Mega menus and accordion navs still need an active path — the visible item, the parent group, and the breadcrumb should all agree.
- Combine mechanisms. Breadcrumbs + active nav + descriptive page title is the standard set.
How Jeikin handles this
The scanner records pages where the navigation contains a link to
the current page's URL but no aria-current="page" on it. The
guided review records whether breadcrumbs are present on hierarchical
pages. The dashboard maps each finding to 2.4.8.