WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

WebAIM-Forum Digest, Vol 228, Issue 1

for

From: Pyatt, Elizabeth J
Date: Mar 1, 2024 3:25PM

Helping writers understand how headings can be used can be tricky.

FWIW - I myself have installed the Headings Map plugin (available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge) and use it in accessibility training to expose the "clickable table of contents" made by the headings on web sites. I think it helps writers understand the true function of headings vs "callouts" and other uses of large text.

And yes, I now use Headings Map (and the Word version of it) to navigate long documents...

Hope this helps.

Elizabeth



From: Jerra Strong < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Document headings
Date: February 29, 2024 at 6:12:02 PM EST
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >


In my work, I would call both methods "compliant", but having a single
Heading 1 as the document's name as the first line, and then the major
sections marked with H2 is a best practice, because it mirrors what users
expect on the web. There are a few articles about this online, I found
this one particularly helpful, because the thinking is explained:

https://accessible-digital-documents.com/blog/one-or-more-h1s-in-pdf/

On Tue, Feb 27, 2024 at 5:49 AM Dax Castro < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

100% concur with Duff on this topic.
In fact often we see the title as an H1 followed by an arbitrary H2 for a
byline or subtext just because it is large and bold. Remember that heading
structure is designed to organize content and is not purely based on text
size.

Dax Castro, ADS

Thanks,
Dax
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > on behalf of
Duff Johnson < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2024 5:31:07 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Document headings

A document is NOT obligated to start with its title. This is not a
“compliance” issue but (at most) a question of best-practice for some
classes of documents. Your QA office hasn’t done anything wrong.

Related observation: HTML is unfortunate in that the <title> element is
abstracted from the <body>, which has resulted in the notion that titles
should be marked as <h1>.

Other technologies (e.g., PDF 2.0) provide both <Title> and <H#> elements.
So, in PDF, one is not compelled to “spend” H1 on the title (thus reducing
the available heading-levels for the document as a whole), but can use H#
for its true semantic intent - headings.

Duff Johnson
PDF Association

On Feb 27, 2024, at 6:30 AM, Claire Forbes < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

Good morning,
I have a question regarding Heading Levels, please see the below for
context and I'll ask my question at the end.

I created a one-page document that flowed with the following document
styles:

* The document title as a Heading Level 1 <H1>
* Then a Paragraph of content <P>
* Then goes into a Heading Level 2 + the next section of content <H2>
<P>
* The rest of the document goes from various <H2> to <P> until the end
The document title is also in the header and the company logo is in the
footer.

Our QA office reviewed the document and removed the document title as
Heading Level 1, started the document with a paragraph of instruction, then
made all my original Heading Level 2s into Heading Level 1s.
So here's the QA's document structure: <P>, <H1>, <P>, <P>,<P>,<H1>,
<P>, <P>, <H1>, <P>, etc....

Can someone please confirm this is non-complaint? A document should
always start with an <H1> and not a <P>, correct?
Just because the document title is in the header of the document that's
not a case for compliance because screen readers don't read headers and
footers, correct?

Thank you!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Elizabeth J. Pyatt, Ph.D.
Accessibility IT Consultant
IT Accessibility
Penn State University
<EMAIL REMOVED> , (814) 865-0805 or
<EMAIL REMOVED> (main office)