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Re: Multiple H1 tags in an HTML5 web page

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From: Jared Smith
Date: Mar 7, 2014 7:37PM

Duff Johnson wrote:
>> Of course this assumes that everything is done correctly
>> and that the algorithm properly reflects the intended structure.
> You make it sound as if this is all very unlikely. Is that fair?

Considering the general abuse and mis-use of HTML5 sectioning elements
(particularly <section>), I have seen very few instances where if the
HTML5 outlining algorithm were applied it would result in improved
accessibility.

>> And there's a good chance this algorithm may change or be dropped from
>> HTML5 entirely.
>
> Fascinating. How would one track this question?
>
> Also, if it was dropped from HTML5 how would that affect EPUB3?

These are better questions for Steve Faulkner or others. I know that
due to very limited implementations there has been some rumors of
changing or dropping it.

> Just to be clear: you are referring to HTML 4.01, which specifies <H1> - <H6>, right?

Yes.

> So, if the author needs to go deeper (H7, H8...) - which was actually the point of Greg's question - you are saying they out of luck?

The answer to that question would be "yes". Greg was, I believe,
instead referring to the fact that you could give each sectioning
element its own independent heading structure beginning with an <h1>
(or really any heading level for that fact) and the outline presented
to the user would be 'reset' and adjusted to reflect a proper outline
regardless of the heading levels actually used in markup. If fact, you
could use <h1> for EVERY heading and just wrap each section in
appropriately nested <section> elements - and this would result in a
proper outline for the document, assuming the outlining mechanisms
were actually implemented, which they presently are not.

Here's a slide I've used that demonstrates that the heading levels
used wouldn't really matter that much if the outlining mechanisms
actually worked -
http://webaim.org/presentations/2013/ariahtml5/sectionarticle3

Jared