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Re: headings, html5 sectioning content, best practice

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From: Stefan Sollinger
Date: Nov 12, 2014 5:09AM

The spec always allowed using h2 etc. AFAIK the spec has been changed some
time ago and it now *recommends* using the appropriate level <h2>, <h3> etc
for subheadings.

Use h2, h3 etc in the normal way. There are only a couple of old Jaws
versions that will try to take the outline level into account but then get
it wrong, and this can be corrected with the aria-level attribute.

Use the following for your sub headings and it will work with all screen
readers:
(Example is an h2 heading, other heading levels work in a similar way)

<h2 aria-level="2">

--
Stefan Sollinger
On 12 Nov 2014 11:56, " <EMAIL REMOVED> " < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hi,
> We're currently facing a dilemma in my team where we are trying to decide
> on the best practice for how to mark up headings in sectioning content.
> E.g. you have an element like <section>, <article>, or <footer>, and it
> contains a heading
> If you follow the spec you would mark that up with <h1>. However, that
> will cause issues in AT, particularly screenreaders, so to support those
> you would use <h2>. Because of JAWS' support for the outline standard
> (http://juicystudio.com/article/html5-outline-algorithm-jaws.php) this
> further requires use of aria to set the heading level properly for JAWS.
> Once AT catches up, these settings will be legacy code, and you'd then have
> the job of updating add headings in sectioning content to their
> spec-compliant number.
> - Is there a consensus over best practice amongst accessibility experts?
> - Am I right in thinking that only JAWS supports document outline properly?
> - How often does Apple update VoiceOver? They seem to update less often
> than JAWS - Am I right in thinking that headlines are commonly used for
> navigation?
>
> Thanks,Dawn
> > > >