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Re: heading question

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Dec 14, 2019 4:42PM

The heading levels need to correspond to the visual weight of the
text, which of course can be subjective (what if heading text is the
same size but one has an underline or a different color).
Also, while levels are important I think there are sitautions where
skipping heading levels is justified.
For instance, if you have a book, its title is an h1, then there is a
dedication or author's note that contains a sentence or two of text,
then there are individual chapters and sub chapters.
The text author's note should be a heading, but not necessary an h2,
it does not mark a chapter in the book, an h3 or h4 is more
appropriate and likely more in line with the visual presentation.
These are the exceptions and consecutive heading levels are good
practice, but WCAG does not outright require them.
In recent usability testing with a number of screen reader users I've
found that very few use heading levels or even pay attention to them
much to my surprise. They do look for an h1 heading, but that's about
it.



On 12/14/19, David Engebretson Jr. < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Howdy!
>
> Heading structure is one of my main topics in the general accessibility
> presentations I give.
>
> I always profess their should be 1 heading level 1 on a page (at the
> beginning of the main region) that matches the <title> of the page - then
> the sections of the page should be marked as heading level 2 with
> subsections at heading level 3 and sub-subsections at heading level 4.
>
> It's not difficult to provide semantic heading structure. It's difficult to
> create the awareness that it is important.
>
> I think the most difficult aspect, at least for me as a blind developer and
> a11y enthusiast, is to convince sighted developers that they can always
> adjust styling through CSS in a properly formatted digital document. CSS is
> simple but not all sighted folks know how to use it. I don't know how to
> use
> it either so I'm super empathetic. I can't tell if I'm causing text
> collisions with my styling adjustments.
>
> It's a bit of a conundrum, no?
>
> Best,
> David
>
>
>