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Re: headings

for

From: Glenda
Date: Feb 17, 2005 3:15PM

ok, now I'm getting confused. If there is no yes/no answer, is there a best
practice?

-----Original Message-----
From: drs18 [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 2:06 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] headings




Patrick wrote
> What validation are we talking about? W3C's XHTML validator? In that
> case, I'm afraid that's not correct...it will quite happily accept an
> even without higher level headings before it. Of course, if it's
> valid from a logic/structure point of view is another matter
> entirely...

I'm far from an expert, and it seems that much is always open to
interpretation. I read the Global Structure of HTML doc at
it says, "Some
people consider skipping heading levels to be bad practice. They accept
H1 H2 H1 while they do not accept H1 H3 H1 since the heading level H2
is skipped." No further instruction is given.

In the Accessibility Guidlines at
it says:

"Since some users skim through a document by navigating its headings,
it is important to use them appropriately to convey document structure.
Users should order heading elements properly. For example, in HTML, H2
elements should follow H1 elements, H3 elements should follow H2
elements, etc. Content developers should not "skip" levels (e.g., H1
directly to H3). Do not use headings to create font effects; use style
sheets to change font styles for example."

I guess I interpret that as Karen did- and since I did, I started to
see sense in it. Which doesn't make me right, of course.





________________________________________
David Stong
Multimedia Specialist, Graphic Designer

Education Technology Services, a small unit within
Information Technology Services, at
The Pennsylvania State University
212 Rider Building II
State College, PA 16801-4819

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