WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: page should contain no more than two h1 elements

for

From: Sharron Rush
Date: Jun 16, 2009 9:50AM

Good discussion on this topic and thanks to Jared for the reminder
that none of the practices described would result in inaccessible
content. I only wanted to add another side to the claim that
"Heading hierarchy works the same way on the web as it does in
print." In practice, that is not really the case, is it?

The fact is that information architecture on the web is deliberately
quite different than the linear presentation in a book with chapters,
subchapters, etc. That is one of the fundamental values of the web -
the ability to present linked data and information that users can
follow as needed or as interest dictates.

I agree that 18 h1s on a page could be quite confusing and would urge
those that want to practice usable accessibility to avoid such a
conflation. As Jim Thatcher says "When everything is a heading,
nothing is." But usually the most usable and accessible solution is
one that emerges from common sense when you give it some thought.

Heading markup is meant to programmatically describe the structure of
the page. Use h1s for highest level, major topic areas within the
page, and most often - but not always - there will be only one. Use
descending hx levels for subsections within the designated h1s.

My two cents,
Sharron


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sharron Rush | Executive Director | www.Knowbility.org | 512 305-0310
Equal access to technology for people with disabilities