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Re: H1 to H4 titles sub titles....

for

From: Sailesh Panchang
Date: May 3, 2011 3:48PM

Allen,
Right, the technical standards do not require headings.
When S508 was written, browsers and AT did not support heading
navigation. But this has changed since.
The objective of the law is to provide "comparable access" to PWD.
Now 1194.31 (A) says "At least one mode of operation and information
retrieval that does not require user vision shall be provided, or
support for assistive technology used by people who are blind or
visually impaired shall be provided".
When the page uses text / image-text styled as headers, marking them
up with h-tags will allow comparable access to headers without
requiring blind users to read complete page using an info retrieval
feature supported by AT today that was not available in 2000-01. This
is a functional outcome.

The Access Board guide says "...a recognition that future technologies
may be developed, or existing technologies could be used in a
particular way, that could provide the same functional access in ways
not envisioned by these standards. In
evaluating whether a technology results in "substantially equivalent
or greater access," it is the functional outcome, not the form, which
is important".
I think the spirit and intent of the law are guiding factors- really
important during implementing any law.
So heading markup is required only when the page uses text /
image-text styled as headers.
Sailesh


On 5/3/11, Hoffman, Allen < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> I'd only add that inconsistent or senseless header change will affect
> different users of screen readers in different ways, there really is no
> "correct" answer. It wouldn't rise to a 508 technical failure in
> general, unless it really makes a page absolutely un-navigable, or would
> require such user memory to make reliance on the headers for navigation
> pointless.
>
>
>
>