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Re: which guideline to empty headers go against?

for

From: JP Jamous
Date: Nov 21, 2016 4:57PM

We have had the same issue at Best Buy. We have various tools that our E-Commerce department use to generate pages quickly to get the product out on the web. They were not implementing headings properly along with other issues. We were cleaning up over 200 pages a year due to those tools that not only hurt A11Y but SEO as well.

We flagged them as Widgets that were not designed with accessibility in mind. They were sent out to the proper teams and now they are being worked on.

Of course, an automated tool won't catch an empty H2 if it is coded properly. That's why manual evaluation is always recommended even if a tool scans any page.

I would file it as third-party widget that was not designed with accessibility in mind. The SC is 4.1.2 Roles and Features.
http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/ensure-compat-rsv.html

If the H2 is showing a color where it is inserted or makes the visual output different, then I'd file it as conveying information using one sense and not multiple senses. Review SC 1.3.3.
http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/complete#content-structure-separation-understanding

Specific Benefits of Success Criterion 1.3.3

-People who are blind and people who have low vision may not be able to understand information if it is conveyed by shape and/or location. Providing additional information other than shape and/or location will allow them to understand the information conveyed by shape and/or alone.

If this applies, I would hit them with it. SEO feeds upon headings. What you insert in your heading can rank your page higher or lower. What is that empty H2 doing to the pages? Some search engines might take it as a way to hide information from them. In our case, we worked directly with the SEO team and both teams attached those widgets.

There are all types of ways you can hit your devs on the head. You just have to identify the problem and make a big deal out of it. It can be annoying at times, but stay professional and keep re-enforcing the fact until it gets done. If you can make it a standard of your company's A11Y policy that would even be better. That way it goes into their pattern library.