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Re: headings

for

From: James Gagnier OFC
Date: Feb 18, 2005 10:03AM

Hi:

I think the basic thing to remember pertaining to headings is consistency.
users of adaptive technology don't expect every site on the net to look or
in the case of screen reader users sound the same, however, if one
particular site uses different ways of marking up each page on the same
site, that will become confusing. In other words, if one plans to use the
h1 as the site's main title, ensure that this follows through on each page.
There is nothing wrong with starting a document with h2 or even h3. If this
messes up the visual layout, changing the size of the heading in style can
resolve this problem. The issue comes down to logical structure throughout
the site not only through one page or series of pages.

In most cases, the user will learn the site's structure and quickly find the
information required using the functionality of his/her preferred screen
reading software, for example, Jaws users can quickly access the headers,
lists, links and even forms.

James

James Gagnier
Adaptive Technology Trainer and Consultant

---- Original Message -----
From: "lists38"
To: "WebAIM Discussion List"
Cc: "WebAIM Discussion List"
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 8:56 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] headings




>
>
> Chris wrote
>> For this document "Southside Streets" is the main headline , and
>> should be
>> the H1. "Chicago" would be the "up" document.
>
> Changing the hierarchical structure of the content makes no sense to
> me. Sorry, I have to disagree.

Apples and Pears. The structure of a web site is not the structure of a
web page. The structure of the site is defined in the sitemap and
replicated in the main navigation and, if wanted, LINK relationships. The
structure of the document is defined in the headlines H1 to H6 and
internal navigation to anchors.

One problem is that strictly from and XML point of view, headlines are
horrible elements as they don't encapsulate the content that is connected
to them A with a properly nested would make more sense.

> michael.brockington wrote:
>>
>> But in HTML (which is what counts) you cannot just repeat a heading in
>> small
>> type.
>> Either you repeat your H1, H2 headings, but add styling to make them
>> small,
>> or you give them some other semantic markup.
>
> Yes you can repeat them in small type using style on the heading tags.
> That's exactly what I'm suggesting.

Bananas and Kiwis - Structure vs. Presentation. Applying that logic would
make a a valid headline construct.

--
Chris Heilmann
Blog: http://www.wait-till-i.com
Writing: http://icant.co.uk/
Binaries: http://www.onlinetools.org/

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