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

for

From: Duff Johnson
Date: Apr 16, 2012 7:08PM

Jared,

On Apr 16, 2012, at 8:50 PM, Jared Smith wrote:

> 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.

Can you explain this claim? I've read Success Criterion 1.3.1 about 50 times in the last three weeks trying to answer this question.

I get that the authors of WCAG 2.0 take the view that 1.3.1 does not require appropriate heading levels. What I don't understand (maybe I'm just dumb) is how the actual TEXT of 1.3.1 supports this view. Secondarily, I don't understand why ignoring heading levels would be acceptable any more than would reading a nested list as if it wasn't nested (which everyone agrees is a no-no).

Two questions...

- If "structure and relationships" are to be "programmatically determined" how can this occur in the case of content in which heading levels don't reflect the document's actual structure?

- Let's say we have some content that IS appropriately structured. Can a user agent that understands headings but ignores levels still comply with WCAG 2.0?

Best regards,

Duff Johnson

President, NetCentric US
ISO 32000 Intl. Project Co-Leader, US Chair
ISO 14289 US Chair
PDF Association Vice-Chair

Office: +1 617 401 8140
Mobile: +1 617 283 4226
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www.net-centric.com

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