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Re: Document headings

for

From: Jerra Strong
Date: Feb 29, 2024 4:12PM

In my work, I would call both methods "compliant", but having a single
Heading 1 as the document's name as the first line, and then the major
sections marked with H2 is a best practice, because it mirrors what users
expect on the web. There are a few articles about this online, I found
this one particularly helpful, because the thinking is explained:

https://accessible-digital-documents.com/blog/one-or-more-h1s-in-pdf/

On Tue, Feb 27, 2024 at 5:49 AM Dax Castro < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> 100% concur with Duff on this topic.
> In fact often we see the title as an H1 followed by an arbitrary H2 for a
> byline or subtext just because it is large and bold. Remember that heading
> structure is designed to organize content and is not purely based on text
> size.
>
> Dax Castro, ADS
>
> Thanks,
> Dax
> > From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > on behalf of
> Duff Johnson < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2024 5:31:07 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Document headings
>
> A document is NOT obligated to start with its title. This is not a
> “compliance” issue but (at most) a question of best-practice for some
> classes of documents. Your QA office hasn't done anything wrong.
>
> Related observation: HTML is unfortunate in that the <title> element is
> abstracted from the <body>, which has resulted in the notion that titles
> should be marked as <h1>.
>
> Other technologies (e.g., PDF 2.0) provide both <Title> and <H#> elements.
> So, in PDF, one is not compelled to “spend” H1 on the title (thus reducing
> the available heading-levels for the document as a whole), but can use H#
> for its true semantic intent - headings.
>
> Duff Johnson
> PDF Association
>
> > On Feb 27, 2024, at 6:30 AM, Claire Forbes < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> >
> > Good morning,
> > I have a question regarding Heading Levels, please see the below for
> context and I'll ask my question at the end.
> >
> > I created a one-page document that flowed with the following document
> styles:
> >
> > * The document title as a Heading Level 1 <H1>
> > * Then a Paragraph of content <P>
> > * Then goes into a Heading Level 2 + the next section of content <H2>
> <P>
> > * The rest of the document goes from various <H2> to <P> until the end
> > The document title is also in the header and the company logo is in the
> footer.
> >
> > Our QA office reviewed the document and removed the document title as
> Heading Level 1, started the document with a paragraph of instruction, then
> made all my original Heading Level 2s into Heading Level 1s.
> > So here's the QA's document structure: <P>, <H1>, <P>, <P>,<P>,<H1>,
> <P>, <P>, <H1>, <P>, etc....
> >
> > Can someone please confirm this is non-complaint? A document should
> always start with an <H1> and not a <P>, correct?
> > Just because the document title is in the header of the document that's
> not a case for compliance because screen readers don't read headers and
> footers, correct?
> >
> > Thank you!
>
> > > > > > > > >