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Re: Query on heading hierarchy

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mar 20, 2018 2:39AM

All that WCAG 1.3.1 requires is that semantic information mirrors
visual information.
If you have a largest heading followed by a small heading followed by
a heading that looks somewhere in the middle, marking the first as h1,
and the others as h2 is misleading, it does not reflect their visual
weight, but marking the first has h1, then h3 and h2 would reflect
their visual emphasis and comply with WCAG 1.3.1.

So the first step is to make sure the heading levels mirror the visual
weight of the headings on the page.
An ideal step would be to ensure that both visual weight and heading
level correctly describes the content structure, but my reading of
WCAG 1.3.1 does not show me that this is required.
Maybe my view goes against the popular view, but I think there are
plenty of situations where an h1 can be followed by an h3 and then h2.

WE often have content with a main heading, a small subsection or note
with no descendants and then categories.
Think of a page of bank accounts.
The main heading is "your accounts".
It could be followed by a small section such as "quick overview" or
"your transactions in the last 24 hours".

Then you have headings for credit card accounts, checking accounts and
other accounts, inside those you have headings for individual accounts
within those categories.

I think the structure that best describes this is to have the heading
of the small section an h3 or h4, the heading of account categories as
h2s and headings for individual accounts h3s.
The section at the top does not have its own subsection, and it takes
up a small area of the page. I think marking it as an h2 does not
describe the way the page is structured.




On 3/20/18, Osmo Saarikumpu < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> On 20/03/2018 09:01, Vemaarapu Venkatesh wrote:
>> Can we say that the heading hierarchy is maintained if h1 is followed by
>> h3's directly skipping h2's. Will this comply with WCAG 2.0.
>
> At least I can't think of a situation where a h3 would be justified
> without a preceding h2. See e.g.:
>
> https://webaim.org/techniques/semanticstructure/#contentstructure
>
> --
> Best wishes, Osmo
> > > > >


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