[Athen] Question about headings

[Robert Spangler]

Hello,

Headings should define the hierarchical structure of a document.  In other
words, major sections should be denoted by higher heading levels (such as
heading level 1 or 2) and smaller sections should be nested under larger
sections, using larger heading levels, such as heading levels 3 and 4.
Commonly, I've seen heading level 1 used as a title, major sections as
heading level 2 and smaller sections using heading levels 3 and onward.

Screen reader users find heading level designations useful because we can
use the quick navigation key H to move forward and shift+H to move
backwards through a document.  The logical organization of these headings
is important to us, too, because we can generate a list of headings in the
document with our screen reader and move quickly to a specific section.

The main takeaway here is that the order of the headings is more important;
if you skip one of the levels, such as going from heading level 2 to
heading level 4, this does not impact screen reader navigation.

Hope this helps!

Robert


On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 12:54 PM Swanson,Allison <
Allison.R.Swanson at colostate.edu> wrote:


> Hello All,

>

>

>

> We’re having some debate on our campus about whether it’s ok to skip

> heading levels or not. I’ve always understood that it was best not to, but

> WCAG doesn’t explicitly state this. What is the consensus from actual

> screen reader users?

>

>

>

> Thanks,

>

>

>

> *Allison Swanson *

>

> *AT-IT Coordinator & Accessibility Facilitator *

>

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>

> 308 Occupational Therapy Building

>

> 970-491-0625

>

> allison.r.swanson at colostate.edu

>

>

>

> Assistive Technology Resource Center

> <https://outlook.office.com/mail/options/mail/messageContent/atrc.colostate.edu>

>

>

> Accessibility By Design <https://accessibility.colostate.edu/>

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>

>

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-- 
Robert Spangler
Disability Services Technical Support Specialist, Office of Learning
Resources (OLR)
University of Dayton
Ryan C. Harris Learning Teaching Center (LTC)
Roesch Library Room: 023
Phone: 937-229-2066
Fax: 937-229-3270
For Deaf/Hard of Hearing, call 711 (Ohio Relay)
For office hours and further OLR information, please visit
go.udayton.edu/ <http://go.udayton.edu/learning>olr
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