WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Headers

for

From: Bevi Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Jan 14, 2011 4:36PM

Heather wrote:
"From reading on the web, I understand that web editors should be using
<Hn></Hn> in our html for the screen readers. In my particular case, our
styles uses classes like "pageMainAreaHeader". Does a screen reader
recognize that as a Header? Or should the <Hn></Hn> be used? "

I'm confused by this conversation and I'm wondering if there were some typos
in the posts.
Heather, you used the class "pageMainAreaHeader".

Did you mean this to be a heading? Headings (with "I n g") and headers (with
"e r") are very different elements.

The easiest example I can give is this one:
Headers and footers appear at the top and bottom of a page (a printed page,
MS Word page, webpage, etc.). In print publications they usually contain the
page number.

Headings on the other hand are your headlines, subheads, etc. that delineate
the different sections of your body text.

In websites and accessible documents we start with <h1> for the primary
heading of the document/webpage, and continue with <h2> for the following
subhead.

I'm assuming that when you state <hn> you mean a heading tag with an "n"
variable, right? Because I'm not aware of any <hn> tag in HTML.

As was stated, your "pageMainAreaHeader" should be turned into <h1> and
styled in your .CSS file to render as you wish.
And all of your "pageMainAreaSubHeader" should become <h2> headings, also
styled in your .CSS file.

If you happen to have a sub-subheader, then that will become <h3>.

--Bevi Chagnon
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
: : : : : : : : : : : : :
Bevi Chagnon | PubCom | <EMAIL REMOVED> | 301-585-8805
Government publishing specialists, trainers, consultants | print, press,
web, Acrobat PDF & 508
Online blog: www.pubcom.com/newsletter