Re: should HTML have a <heading> element?

I don't think it is a good idea for HTML to mess with heading levels, on
h1-h6...

Not opposed to a new heading element, but I question whether web masters
will know what to do with it. It has taken 15 years for us to start using
headings at all... I'm nervous that this will muddy the waters...

but won't fall on my sword over this last point.

Cheers,

David MacDonald



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On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 4:34 AM, Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>wrote:

> forwarding to the a11y list, please comment on the HTML list - thanks!
> --
>
> Regards
>
> SteveF
> HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>
> Date: 9 May 2014 09:32
> Subject: should HTML have a <heading> element?
> To: HTMLWG WG <public-html@w3.org>
> Cc: Marco Zehe <marco.zehe@googlemail.com>
>
>
> discussion starter:
>
> HTML5 has the outline algorithm [1] (as yet largely unimplemented  ) which
> effectively removes the semantic meaning of numeric headings.
>
> example:
>
> <body>
> <h6>
>
> does not mean a heading level 6 it means a heading level 1
>
> conversely:
> <body>
> <section />
> <section />
> <section />
> <section />
> <section />
> <section />
> <h1>
>
> does not mean a heading level 1 it means a heading level 7
>
> It has been suggested by marco zehe from Mozilla [3] that
>
> the only clean way forward for the outline algorithm is this:
>>
>
>>
> 1. Leave h1 to h6 alone as they always were. h1 through h6 are always that
>> regardless of what they are nested in.
>>
>> 2. Introduce a new element named "heading" or the like that is the only
>> element
>> participating in the outline algorithm. it gets a level of 1 by default,
>> and a level of
>> greater than 1 depending on which section elements it is nested in. So a
>> section heading gets
>> a level of 2, a section section heading gets a level of 3 etc. And the
>> calculation of the
>> levels is the sole responsibility of the browser, indicating the
>> calculated level as an
>> implicit aria-level attribute. Styling could then be based off the
>> section nesting or
>> the proposed DOM attribute that would correspond to implicit aria-level.
>>
>> This is the only way where there is a clean choice for web developers:
>> Use the limited 1 to 6 heading levels,
>> or choose a more free and modern way of structuring documents, and the
>> browser takes care of communicating
>> the level to assistive technologies.
>>
>
>
> A custom <heading> element [2] designed to explore how such a feature
> could work in practice is in development.
>
> [1] http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/sections.html#outlines
> [2] https://github.com/ThePacielloGroup/w3c-heading#w3c-heading
> [3] https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=25003#c18
>
>
> --
>
> Regards
>
> SteveF
> HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>
>
>

Received on Friday, 9 May 2014 21:42:13 UTC