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Thread: Heading or Not?

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From: David Ashleydale
Date: Thu, Mar 28 2013 4:28PM
Subject: Heading or Not?
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Hi,

Another interesting question came up the other day and I didn't know the
answer. I know that headings can be somewhat of a gray area, but I'd like
to know your opinions on this situation.

I have a phrase followed by a bulleted list. The question is whether or not
the phrase should be marked up as a heading.

*Desserts and Snacks:*

- Are not healthy
- Are not helpful in losing weight
- May cause restless sleep

The phrase "Desserts and Snacks" is bold and is followed by a colon.

Should "Desserts and Snacks" be marked up as a heading? The fact that it is
bold, on a line of its own and serves as kind of a title to the content
that follows it leads me to believe it should be a heading.

But really this is all just one sentence that happens to have a colon and a
list of items in it. It seems odd to me to have the first three words of a
sentence be marked up as a heading. It could easily have been written like
this:

"Desserts and snacks are not healthy, are not helpful in losing weight, and
may cause restless sleep."

How would you mark that phrase up? I keep going back and forth on it.

Thanks,
David

From: Jared Smith
Date: Thu, Mar 28 2013 4:45PM
Subject: Re: Heading or Not?
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This is a very interesting question. I don't think there is a "right"
answer. If the text in question were standing alone, I probably would
not mark it up as a heading. There would be little additional utility
provided to users by having this text in a list of headings or making
it navigable.

If, however, there were multiple sections (maybe one for vegetables
and one for grains), then I'd be more likely to mark all of them up as
headings because differentiating them semantically could be useful.

In the end, there's very little difference to the user.

Interestingly, HTML3 had a <lh> (list header) element designed exactly
for this type of thing, but it never caught hold -
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/listheader.html

Jared

From: David Ashleydale
Date: Thu, Mar 28 2013 4:48PM
Subject: Re: Heading or Not?
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Oh man, I've always wished there were a "list header"!


On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 3:45 PM, Jared Smith < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> This is a very interesting question. I don't think there is a "right"
> answer. If the text in question were standing alone, I probably would
> not mark it up as a heading. There would be little additional utility
> provided to users by having this text in a list of headings or making
> it navigable.
>
> If, however, there were multiple sections (maybe one for vegetables
> and one for grains), then I'd be more likely to mark all of them up as
> headings because differentiating them semantically could be useful.
>
> In the end, there's very little difference to the user.
>
> Interestingly, HTML3 had a <lh> (list header) element designed exactly
> for this type of thing, but it never caught hold -
> http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/listheader.html
>
> Jared
> > > >

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Thu, Mar 28 2013 6:10PM
Subject: Re: Heading or Not?
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I think, as a user at least, that if this is just part of a larger
text, not part of an itemized list of lists it should not be a
heading.
The importance of healthy diet.
Research shows that ... ....
- a
- b
- c

If it is set up as a list of lists (not necessarily semantically, but
if the text is set up that way) one may consider using headings.
vegetables are:
- a
- b
- c

meat is
- d
- e
- awesome if it is a tenderloin.

Then h4 or h5 headings might make sense (too many headings, especially
h1 or h2 or h3 truly distract the screen reader user and end up being
very irritating and unhelpful, too much of a good thing is not a good
thing).

Agai,Again, this is just my end user opinion, so take it as such. ;)
-B


On 3/28/13, David Ashleydale < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Oh man, I've always wished there were a "list header"!
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 3:45 PM, Jared Smith < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
>> This is a very interesting question. I don't think there is a "right"
>> answer. If the text in question were standing alone, I probably would
>> not mark it up as a heading. There would be little additional utility
>> provided to users by having this text in a list of headings or making
>> it navigable.
>>
>> If, however, there were multiple sections (maybe one for vegetables
>> and one for grains), then I'd be more likely to mark all of them up as
>> headings because differentiating them semantically could be useful.
>>
>> In the end, there's very little difference to the user.
>>
>> Interestingly, HTML3 had a <lh> (list header) element designed exactly
>> for this type of thing, but it never caught hold -
>> http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/listheader.html
>>
>> Jared
>> >> >> >>
> > > >