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From: Steve Green
Date: Aug 20, 2025 4:24AM

It certainly isn't a hard and fast WCAG rule. If a page contains two entirely unrelated topics, it can and indeed must have two h1 headings if there isn't an overarching heading. For instance, if a page contains multiple news articles, the heading for each one should be h1 if there is no overarching "News" heading. There may not be such a heading because at level AA there is no requirement to have visual headings, although there is at level AAA. If there is a "News" heading, it would be h1 and each news article would be h2.

In my previous email I forgot to mention the way in which WCAG is contradictory. As I said, in most places, it says that the heading levels must reflect the logical structure of the content, which is what almost everyone does. However, in at least one place it says the headings should reflect the importance of the content, which is an entirely different thing. Furthermore, it is subjective because we will not have a shared view of importance. By contrast, we should be able to agree on the logical structure of a page.

Steve