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Re: Aria roles instead of headings?

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From: Bo Nilsson
Date: Mar 5, 2013 3:20AM

Hi!



As a many years screen reader users, I would like to say something about the
use of headings.



The most superior way to quickly get to the main content is in my opinion
that there is placed the first heading of the page,preferably a H1. This is
now a widely established practice, although it is not explicitly set in the
guidelines. It has the advantage of not often need to examine the
methodology the side might use to get to the main content. Just press h or
1.



There are also the methods links and landmarks to reach the main content,
where landmarks would possibly come to compete with headings. I would prefer
the use of headings and landmarks in parallel to maximize efficiency.



I also wish to argue restrictivity with headlines outside of the main
content and limit them to what is really justified for the grand navigation,
for example, for some important menu. It can be accepted that sometimes have
a single heading before the main content when you press h or 1. Such
headlines may well be H1.



On the contrary, the landmarks would probably be avoided in the main
content, there gives headlines H2 and less adequate support. Landmarks
should probably be reserved for the grand navigation outside of the main
content.



I want to emphasize that I do not speak as an expert on guidelines or
design, but as a screen reader user.



Bo Nilsson
List Member in Sweden



----- Original Message -----
From: "Jared Smith" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 5:22 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Aria roles instead of headings?


> On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 9:05 PM, Duff Johnson wrote:
>
>> Legal HTML, yes, but is it "best practice" for accessibility in HTML?
>
> I've yet to hear anything to the contrary. The only arguments I've
> seen for requiring that a document begin with an h1 are due to
> misunderstanding the requirements for heading structure.
>
>>> Why not do both? This would provide easier page navigation for users
>>> that navigate by headings and those that navigate by landmarks.
>>
>> Why should it be a heading at all? Isn't that question dependent on the
>> context, and the nature of the page (volume of content, etc)? Is this
>> good *generic* advice?
>
> My recommendation was not generic, it was specific to Christian's
> situation. He indicated that his search form already had a heading for
> a title, thus my recommendation to keep the heading rather than turn
> it into something else. I didn't suggest that search functionality
> should always have a heading, though if it has a visual heading (as is
> seemingly the case here), it should probably be marked up as a heading
> regardless of whether it comes before an h1 or after.
>
> Jared
> > >