WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: PDFs and NVDA

for

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Aug 21, 2011 3:30PM


I wrote an article on the Karlen Communications blog called "Headings, Headers, Headaches" to help explain the difference between heading styles, page headers and table headers...hence the "headache" part when you are learning the differences.

Http://www.karlencommunicatns.com/Blog

Cheers, Karen

Out of Office, Sent from my iPad

On 2011-08-21, at 4:57 PM, "Bevi Chagnon" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Lisa, I think you mean "headings" not "headers."
> They are very different parts of a page.
> To help understand the difference: when you think of a header also think of
> its mate, a footer. Headers are running headers (aka page numbers, folios,
> repeating info) that repeat at the top of every page.
>
> A heading is a headline, subhead, title or something similar that is part of
> the body text on a page. Headings are used by assistive technologies for
> quick navigation while headers are usually ignored.
>
> Similar usage for tables. A table header is the repeating information at the
> top and includes the column heads. A table heading falls in within the body
> of the table and acts like a subhead, dividing one portion of a table from
> another.
> In tables, the header is used by assistive technologies to orientate the
> user, while table headings (subheads) are usually read like any other text
> in the table and often confuse the heck out of AT users.
>
> --Bevi Chagnon
> (former editor and typesetting)
>
> --
> Bevi Chagnon | <EMAIL REMOVED>
> PubCom - Trainers, consultants, designers, and developers
> Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and Federal Section 508
> --
> * It's our 30th Year! *
>
>
>