Provide human help

Provide Human Help

• Ensure easy access to a human who can provide help and support.
• Support can be on accessibility, technical, process or domain based.
• Access to human help should never require the user to manage complex menu systems such as voice menus with different options.

How it helps

In cases where the user gets stuck or confused for any reason, contact with a human is usually the most effective and suitable solution. Otherwise the user may abandon the process and be left with negative attitude towards the service or supplier.

One or more contact mechanisms should be easy to locate and use from any page or any step in a process.

More details

Examples include

• An option for live chat or video call help. Note: It must be full accessible and easy to close new windows that open as part of live help functionality.
• A phone number, ideally with a feature to automatically call via an interoperable Voice over IP specification.
• A simple site contact form.
• An email link using the ‘mailto’ protocol with prefilled “to” and “subject” fields. Note will not work on all platforms or depending of the users mail client
• Use available standards to get human help for example, using the 0 digit on voice menu systems

It is important that voice communication is easy and this implies the person providing help can both be easily understood and is able to understand others, allowing for a range of vocal and verbal characteristics. Sensitivity to the requirements of people with learning cognitive disabilities is also important.

Examples

Success example:

Failure example:

Technique and resources

Techniques to consider

• Live chat or video call help
• A phone number or link (eq VOIP phone)
• A simple contact form

Full Details in the COGA Design Guide 8.3.4 Provide human help

WCAG

• WCAG 3.3.5 Help: Context-sensitive help is available (Level AAA)] Note for coga global help should be provided as well as context sensitive [?]
• WCAG G71: Providing a help link on every Web page Note for coga, help should be available on every page, not just forms.
• WCAG G193 Providing help by an assistant in the Web page](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G193.htmlhttps://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G193.html) NB !!! There is often a mixture of suitable WCAG links (SC, quick ref, Techniques & Understanding). I picked the SC plus others even though they can all be found via the SC

Personalisation

• P999 Select default help mode</li>

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