WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Clarification on the banner role not being at the top of a page

for

From: jp Jamous
Date: Jun 25, 2023 12:10PM

Personally, I do not like to find the <header> tag anywhere except the top of the page. I typically keep my regions turned on with JAWS to keep me oriented across the page. Not only it helps me as a user .but as an A11y consultant as well.

I like to look at pages with the following layout.
<header>
</header>
<main>
</main>
<footer>
</footer>

This is a very logical structure. For example, a table can have a table header and footer. Header refers to the head and footer refers to the feet. So we have a top to bottom layout with the main page in the center. I think it would sound and look pretty weird to have someone's head to the right of his or her body. Wouldn't it? It reminds me of car racers when they hold their helmets by their sides while posing for a picture. 😊

Again, this is my personal preference. However, I always think of the casual computer user. Can he or she make sense of what is being announced? Banner at the end of the main region before the footer? That does sound weird. Most banners are posted up high so people can see them from far away and read them. Now, we got a banner above the footer. Why would I post a banner so low to the ground?

So keeping it simple is how I like to explain it to UX designers and developers. Keep it simple and logical. If it can be done technically, it does not mean that it is logical to the end user.

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of glen walker
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2023 12:09 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Clarification on the banner role not being at the top of a page

The definition of a <header> element,
https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/sections.html#the-header-element,
says:

"The header element represents a group of introductory or navigational aids."

Does your sidebar have a group of navigational aids?

On Sun, Jun 25, 2023 at 10:41 AM Ridz Apps < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> ! would like to know then Patrick if header is indeed the correct
> element for that left sidebar on the website I mentioned above. I have
> the same use case.
>
>