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Re: Reference to not add formatting attributes to Heading tags

for

From: Laura Roberts
Date: May 2, 2022 4:29PM

That's good to hear. Sometimes it makes sense in a document to skip a
subheading level.

On Mon, May 2, 2022 at 3:55 PM Duff Johnson < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> > I think PDF/UA-2 is planning to relax the strict rules around skipping
> heading levels, so it should be consistent with WCAG....recommended best
> practice, but not required.
>
> This is correct. Insofar as is possible, PDF/UA-2 eschews “content
> provisions” entirely, and focuses on syntax requirements, effectively
> deferring to other sources (e.g., WCAG) for recommendations regarding the
> author's content choices. Accordingly, the current draft of PDF/UA-2 allows
> a conforming document to include an illogical heading structure (e.g.,
> skipped heading levels).
>
> Duff.
>
>
> > It's interesting that skipping heading levels will fail PAC3 in a PDF,
> but
> > not WCAG (although it is strongly discouraged).
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 29, 2022, 2:03 PM glen walker < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> >
> >> Mark, that's an interesting situation. I understand the desire to have
> >> consistent heading levels and the last troubleshooting section is
> indeed at
> >> an h3 level compared to the other h3s, but I would probably make *all*
> the
> >> troubleshooting sections h4s so that I can always find them using the
> '4'
> >> screen reader shortcut key, even if that means a heading level is
> skipped
> >> (an h2 followed by an h4). That's just a personal choice but I would
> find
> >> it easier to use the '4' shortcut to find a troubleshooting section then
> >> use Shift+H to hear the heading that is immediately previous to the
> >> troubleshooting section so that I have context.
> >>
> >> But to address JoAnn's original question, I agree with Patrick that, in
> >> general, <strong> or <em> can be used in a heading without any trouble
> and
> >> I have never heard that it shouldn't be done. But I presume the text
> you
> >> want to emphasize with <strong> has a particular meaning? That is, you
> >> want to emphasize part of the heading more than the other parts of the
> >> heading? Depending on *why* you want to emphasize part of it, you might
> >> have to convey that same importance to assistive technology too. While
> >> <strong> is a semantic element, by default, a screen reader doesn't do
> >> anything special with it so the user might not know it's there. The
> user
> >> can certainly turn on formatting options with the screen reader so that
> >> changes in fonts can be announced, but I don't know how often that's
> done.
> >>
> >> I hate the "it depends" answers but that seems to apply here. It
> depends
> >> on why you want to emphasize part of the heading.
> >>
> >> <h2>some heading text <strong>that is really important</strong> that you
> >> should pay attention to</h2>
> >>
> >> <h2>some heading text <span class="sr-only">(please read
> carefully)</span>
> >> <strong>that is really important</strong> that you should pay attention
> >> to</h2>
> >>
> >> The second example tries to convey the importance with screen reader
> text
> >> but you almost need an "important text starts here" and an "end of
> >> important text" segment.
> >>
> >> But maybe that will spark some ideas.
> >> > >> > >> > >> > >>
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
> > > > >


--
Best regards,
Laura Roberts
413-588-8422