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Re: heading structure quandry

for

From: Pratik Patel
Date: Jan 19, 2015 10:42AM

Is there a particular business case for "Refer to XYZ Committee" line to be
the first? In addition, there is nothing to suggest that the first line has
to be enclosed in a heading. If you're unable to reverse the two lines,
consider skipping the heading on the first line.

Regards,

Pratik



Pratik Patel
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-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Trafford, Logan
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2015 12:04 PM
To: ' <EMAIL REMOVED> '
Subject: [WebAIM] heading structure quandry

Looking for opinions. I will try to summarize the issue as succinctly as
possible.

I’m building a Word template (for reports) that get converted to PDF and
posted to external website. Once the Word document is completed, the author
has no further control (i.e. the conversion to PDF is done in batch mode
automatically and they can’t remediate the PDF after the fact).

The natural Heading 1 of the document is the text that appears at the top of
the doc which is “Report to XYZ Committee”, followed by additional (normal
text) that identifies date, who submitted it etc. and THEN the actual
subject matter of the report.

Example:
Report to XYZ Committee
January 15, 2015
Submitted by: Jane Doe
Contact Person: Barney Fife
Ward:
File #
Subject:

My issue is that while it is natural to style the main title (Report to XYZ
Committee) as a Heading 1 (and also enter it as the title in the Properties
of the document), there may be hundreds of these reports converted to PDF
and posted to the website on a yearly basis that would end up having the
exact same title, thus potentially having an adverse effect on search
capabilities.

Would it make more sense to have the unique “Subject:” of the document
styled as the Heading 1 instead and the “Report to XXX Committee” as a
Heading 2. I do realize that automated checkers will fail for having
skipped heading levels, but that’s not the end of the world. Or am I simply
over-thinking this and it wouldn’t make much of a difference either way
(from and A11Y perspective), thus having the generic “Report to XYZ
Committee” on multiple documents being totally acceptable.

Appreciate any input.
Thanks,

Logan Trafford

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