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Re: Headings and WCAG2 compliance (1.3.1) [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Apr 16, 2012 6:50PM

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 5:49 PM, Miller, Steve MR 1 wrote:

> Could someone please advise whether a page containing two <h1> tags is WCAG2 compliant?

There is no requirement in WCAG 2.0 that a page have only one <h1>. In
fact, there's no requirement in WCAG that a page have a logical
heading structure at all. A page generally must have headings to
identify sections, but there's nothing that requires them to be of an
appropriate level.

> Technically to follow the principles of semantic markup and a hierarchical structure, a <H1> tag should not be the child of another <H1> tag.

When you consider a document outline, an <h1> can't really be a child
of another <h1>. It would always be a sibling (i.e., at the same level
as any other <h1>).

Most pages should have one <h1> (except the very rare instance of two
or more main title headings), but it's certainly not a requirement of
WCAG.

If you're talking HTML5, every heading on the page could be an <h1>
and it could be very accessible and compliant.

> Also and probably more important (the subject of many robust discussions) - can site navigation elements be marked up as headings?

Can you provide an example or description of what you mean? I think
this would generally be an odd presentation, though logos are commonly
headings and one could consider that a "site navigation element".

Jared