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Re: H1 before or after left nav menu?

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From: Sailesh Panchang
Date: Jan 28, 2016 1:39PM

It depends on the UI design and content author. If they identify the
main content as the region that includes the left nav, the h1 may be
at the start of the left nav.
I have seen pages with the h1 after the left nav but the main landmark
is the region that holds the left nav (identified as a nav landmark)
as well.
Then there are pages with a heading for the left nav too.
There is no requirement for the page title and h1 text to be identical.
Lastly, even with the above design some sites are designed in a
manner that the left nav visually appears to be before the main
content text etc. but the tab order goes through the links in the main
content and then to the left nav links. Of course it can go through
the left nav links and then to the links within main content.
What is critical is consistency: consistency in identifying headings
at start of main content with the same h<n> tag and consistency in
navigation order.
Without consistency a user will not be able to reliably use a
technique to navigate around the pages within a website.
Thanks,
Sailesh Panchang
On 1/28/16, Jonathan Cohn < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> As a full time Screen Reader user, I agree with Jared, but if the H1 header
> is physically above both the Left Navigation area and the article, wouldn't
> putting the H1 after the Left Navigation mean that the order displayed as
> top down no longer matches the order in the DOM?
>
>
>> On Jan 28, 2016, at 13:04, Jared Smith < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>>
>> Chaals McCathie Nevile wrote:
>>
>>>> Regardless of where H1 goes, 'skip to content' link should go directly
>>>> to
>>>> Page Text and Content, correct?
>>>
>>> Correct. Which should also be wrapped in a main element, for people with
>>> useful modern software.
>>
>> Though it would be odd to have either a <main> element or the main
>> content of the page not begin with the <h1>.
>>
>> If the sidebar is directly content-related (such as a table of
>> contents for the content), then it might make sense after the <h1>.
>> But generally I think this type of thing is more usable either before
>> the <h1> or (probably optimally) after the content, perhaps in an
>> <aside> element with a descriptive heading. If your structure has the
>> sidebar after the <h1>, but the <h1> does not describe or is not
>> applicable to the sidebar (e.g., it is site navigation), then this
>> would not be appropriate.
>>
>> Jared
>> >> >> >> >
> > > > >