Revise understanding for SC 3.2.4 Consistent Identification

[giacomo-petri]

This PR substantially revises the understanding doc of SC 3.2.4 Consistent Identification to improve clarity and reduce common ambiguities in the interpretation of the SC.

Closes:

• Consistent Identification examples 2 and 8 #4250
• Understanding Doc for SC 3.2.4 Adds a Requirement for two components on the same page, which is not always beneficial #4651
• Why does 3.2.4: Consistent Identification has the "AND" in the technique? #1778
• Understanding for 3.2.4 Consistent Identification needs a rewrite/refocusing #4562
• Clarification requested for 3.2.4 Consistent Identification #4216
• 3.2.4 Consistent Identification: ambiguities in the Understanding document require clarification #5225

Note: the changes are editorial only and do not modify the normative meaning of SC 3.2.4. Instead, they aim to remove significant ambiguities in the current understanding doc, including examples that can be interpreted as contradictory or that blur the intended scope of the SC.

Main changes

• Reworked the Intent section to focus on the purpose of consistent identification rather than specific identification mechanisms.
• Clarified the concepts of same functionality and identified consistently within the context of the SC.
• Clarified that the SC applies to recurring components within a set of web pages, including repeated instances on the same page when they are part of the recurring interface.
• Distinguished normative requirements from design best practices by moving non-required guidance into notes.
• Added guidance explaining that consistent identification does not necessarily require identical labels, names, or text alternatives when contextual differences improve user understanding.
• Examples reorganized, removed, updated, added.

The goal of these changes is to make the understanding doc more closely reflect the wording and intent of SC 3.2.4 while providing clearer guidance for authors, auditors and implementers.

Preview: https://deploy-preview-5251--wcag2.netlify.app/understanding/consistent-identification

Diff: https://services.w3.org/htmldiff?doc1=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FWAI%2FWCAG22%2FUnderstanding%2Fconsistent-identification.html&doc2=https%3A%2F%2Fdeploy-preview-5251--wcag2.netlify.app%2Funderstanding%2Fconsistent-identification

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[patrickhlauke]

Nice work @giacomo-petri ... I'll spend some time giving this a once-over before moving it to drafted

[patrickhlauke]

This is very nicely done. A big cleanup of a previously quite muddled/handwavy understanding document. There's a few tweaks I'd suggest, but overall this looks very solid.

[patrickhlauke]

i believe the merge conflict was caused by 6e8bd03 - but as this completely rewrites all examples anyway, it can be resolved just by overwriting that whole section with what's in the PR here.

[bruce-usab]

Nice work! But what about #1778 ?

[bruce-usab]

Discussed on previous calls and finalized on 21 August Backlog call.