RE: Re: [#925] mandatory H1

> -----Original Message-----
> From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Michele Diodati
> Sent: donderdag 26 augustus 2004 15:12
> To: w3c-wai-gl
> Subject: Re: Re: [#925] mandatory H1
> 
> 
> >> I think that a web page should start with a H1 heading and 
> that one 
> >> and only one H1 heading should be present on the same page.
> >
> >I disagree since a hierarchy does not necessarily consist of 
> only one 
> >part at its top (as in society, see executive boards or ancient 
> >triumvirates). -- And otherwise, why should you then use 
> more than one 
> ><h2 />, or more than one <h3 /> element?
> 
> No concept is so general that you can't bring it under a more 
> general category (executive boards and triumvirates 
> included). If your web page has two or more blocks of 
> content, each starting with a H1 and totally independent from 
> the others, in all likelihood it would be better to put each 
> of them on a separate web page. Conversely, if you can bring 
> together all of these blocks under a common heading, you will 
> have one H1 for your web page and probably your readers will 
> find the whole content more homogeneous and more 
> comprehensible (accessible). This uniqueness does not apply 
> to headings of levels lower than H1: in principle each block 
> of information can be split up into more specific subsets, 
> and each subset can be identified with a specific level of 
> heading lower than its ancestor (or container) in the 
> hierarchy of page.
> 

If an author chooses to put two equally important issues on the same page,
is it really a task of this group to forbid that? The author may have very
good reasons not to split the content up in several pages, even if it
contains more than 1 equally important topics. Unless having multiple H1's
actually causes accessibility problems, I do not want to limit the authors
and speak against forbidding multiple H1's.

For example assume I have a website to teach children about the Frisian
language (a minority language in the Netherlands). I have a section with
nursery rhymes and I include two versions side by side: a Dutch version and
a Frisian version. I give the Dutch version a Dutch title with an H1 and the
Frisian version a Frisian title with an H1. Having them side-by-side instead
of two separate pages actually helps people in understanding the content so
helps accessibility for some groups. The other way to have this content with
just 1 H1 would be to create an artificial extra header which I do not think
benefits anyone.

Yvette Hoitink
Heritas, Enschede, the Netherlands
E-mail: y.p.hoitink@heritas.nl
WWW: http://www.heritas.nl

Received on Thursday, 26 August 2004 14:19:25 UTC