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Re: Heading order/nesting - was RE: H1 header in iframe

for

From: Susan Grossman
Date: Aug 26, 2010 9:54AM

>>As with most things in HTML, the rules are made to be broken. The spec
does not clarify either way. There is and always will be debate about
this. http://h1debate.com/ gives much insight. It is worth noting that
70% of voters there believe the document title should be the <h1> as
opposed to the site name/logo. From an accessibility standpoint, I
think this practice provides great utility for keyboard users, is
structurally and semantically sound, and makes the most sense. It is
thus what I use and recommend.


A lot of good points and a link I hadn't been to! Really appreciate the
thought-through reply.

Thanks - Susan


On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 8:23 AM, Jared Smith < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 8:30 AM, Susan Grossman wrote:
> >> ...Interestingly, the new w3.org site uses two <h1>s on content page -
> > one for the logo and one for the document heading.
> >
> > I was taught that you never use more than one H1 on a page, and have
> > followed this, without question on all sites.
>
> Well, the H1 is a first level, main document heading. The HTML spec
> indicates that a heading "describes the topic of the section it
> introduces" (http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/global.html#h-7.5.5).
> As such, making the site name the <h1> is perfectly valid. But if you
> then use more than one <h2> (one being for the document title), you
> are saying that the document title and the entirety of the main
> content of that page are equal in importance to any other <h2>s (and
> their content) on that page. Is the main subject of the page really
> equal to the sidebar or footer or main navigation?
>
> On the other hand, I think most web pages are about or described best
> by the document title. With the exception of the home page, few
> documents are really about or best described by "site name".
>
> By using two <h1>s, you are essentially saying that the web page is
> comprised of two distinct pieces or two distinct documents, perhaps.
> Considering the structure of the W3.org site, the first part of the
> page including the main navigation is described by the site name
> ("W3C"). But the second <h1> indicates that the main content and
> beyond (including the footer navigation) is described by the document
> title, but it is NOT described by or within "W3C" at all. This makes
> no sense at all to me.
>
> Now if your document truly is comprised of two distinct 'documents'
> (an English version and a Spanish version, for example), then two
> <h1>'s might be very appropriate.
>
> > And since I was taught there can't be an H2 without an H1
>
> I hear this being taught, but don't see any strong reason why it must
> be this way. The spec certainly does not require it. Maybe I'm missing
> something.
>
> > So is there an H1 rule or not? Is anything cut and dry?
>
> As with most things in HTML, the rules are made to be broken. The spec
> does not clarify either way. There is and always will be debate about
> this. http://h1debate.com/ gives much insight. It is worth noting that
> 70% of voters there believe the document title should be the <h1> as
> opposed to the site name/logo. From an accessibility standpoint, I
> think this practice provides great utility for keyboard users, is
> structurally and semantically sound, and makes the most sense. It is
> thus what I use and recommend.
>
> Jared Smith
>