Re: More than one h1 tag

I suspect having more than one H1 tag could disorientate screen reader  
users as the convention from my understanding has been to create a  
hierarchical tree structure out of a Web document. This is more of a  
minor usability point and I'm not raising this as a key issue or  
anything.

-peter


On Nov 30, 2009, at 3:41 PM, Jon Gunderson wrote:

> The use of the title and h1 element for titling a web page is a well  
> known best practice for accessibility.  I am interested in knowing  
> of situations where more than one h1 would be considered a best  
> practice for accessibility?
>
> iCITA HTML Best Practices Rules for Titling a web page:
> http://html.cita.illinois.edu/nav/title/title-rules.php
>
> NOTE: Up to two H1 elements are allowed as long as they follow the  
> rules.  One H1 could be used for web site information and the other  
> for sub page information.  The sub page information though is the  
> most important use of the H1 element.
>
> And conformance tools to evaluate implementation of other best  
> practices:
>
> Illinois Functional Accessibility Evaluator
> http://fae.cita.illinois.edu
>
> Firefox Accessibility Extension:
> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5809
>
> Jon
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>> Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:33:33 +0100
>> From: "Harry Loots" <harry.loots@ieee.org>
>> Subject: RE: More than one h1 tag
>> To: Andrew Kirkpatrick <akirkpat@adobe.com>, WAI Interest Group  
>> list <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
>>
>> I'm in agreement with AWK - the specs do not forbid the use of  
>> multiple <H1>s.
>> However, in practice it will make sense to only use one <H1> per  
>> page - this
>> should describe the primary subject of the page - in the same way  
>> as a printed
>> or Word-processed document would only have one top-level heading,  
>> normally the
>> title of the document.
>> For what it's worth: I use <H2> to describe the page (including  
>> primary /
>> secondary navigation / main content area title); and <H3> as the  
>> paragraph or
>> section headings. Headings, properly nested, helps provide context to
>> speechreader users and allow them to quickly navigate around the  
>> page, jumping
>> to different zones on the page, or jumping from one <H2> to the  
>> next <H2>, etc.
>>
>> Now just to make sure that none of this discussion relains  
>> relevant, we'll see
>> a brand new structure in XHTML 2/ HTML 5 when the H element will  
>> assume the
>> characteristics of H1 or other Hn element based on it's position in  
>> the
>> hierarchy of the document.
>>
>> Kind regards
>> Harry
>>
>> Mob: +44 7826 926 994
>>
>>
>> ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
>>
>>
>> ---------- Original Message -----------
>> From: Andrew Kirkpatrick <akirkpat@adobe.com>
>> To: WAI Interest Group list <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
>> Sent: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:48:36 -0800
>> Subject: RE: More than one h1 tag
>>
>>> I'd disagree with that statement - http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/NOTE-
>>> WCAG20-TECHS-20081211/G141.html indicates that authors _should_
>>> follow the structure you indicate, but nothing that says that they
>>> _must_.  "Should" indicates that it is generally regarded as
>>> important, but if you are evaluating a site for WCAG 2.0 there is
>>> nothing in the recommendation that says that a page with three H1's
>>> would fail, provided that the page structure corresponds to that.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> AWK
>>>
>>> Andrew Kirkpatrick
>>>
>>> Senior Product Manager, Accessibility
>>>
>>> Adobe Systems
>>>
>>> akirkpat@adobe.com<mailto:akirkpatrick@adobe.com>
>>>
>>> From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]
>>> On Behalf Of Andy Laws Sent: Friday, November 27, 2009 11:22 AM To:
>>> WAI Interest Group list Subject: More than one h1 tag
>>>
>>> Dear All
>>> in the event of a page having more than 1 h1 tag can i confirm that
>>> this breaks guidling  1.3.1 of WCAG 2.0 as this not a meaningful  
>>> sequence
>>>
>>> Reagrds
>>> Andy
>>>
>>> --
>>> Andrew Laws Bsc(Hons) MBCS, FBCS
>>> Web-Sites:
>>> www.opelnet.co.uk<http://www.opelnet.co.uk>
>>> www.cubiks.com<http://www.cubiks.com>
>>> www.holidayhypermarket.co.uk<http://www.holidayhypermarket.co.uk>
>>> e-mail: adlaws@gmail.com<mailto:adlaws@gmail.com>
>>> Telephone:: +44 (0) 7828822987
>> ------- End of Original Message -------
>>
>>
> Jon Gunderson, Ph.D.
> Coordinator Information Technology Accessibility
> Disability Resources and Educational Services
>
> Rehabilitation Education Center
> Room 86
> 1207 S. Oak Street
> Champaign, Illinois 61820
>
> Voice: (217) 244-5870
>
> WWW: http://www.cita.illinois.edu/
> WWW: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jongund/www/
>
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Received on Tuesday, 1 December 2009 08:41:07 UTC