Current suggestion for subheading isn't accessible

Please refer to common idioms suggestion in HTML spec:
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/common-idioms.html#sub-head

The first example shows an image in which there is one line of text
"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers". And its suggested HTML markup
is
<h1>The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers</h1>
The problems with that markup are:
1. It doesn't actually markup the subheading. There is only a heading
element (<h1>). And that's because presentation didn't being separated
from structure. How the markup was coded was affected by the design
(but it shouldn't be). If the line of text consists of a heading and a
subheading, then it should be markuped by using two particular HTML
elements, and then use CSS to turn them into one line according to the
design.
2. Screen reader users have no way to know the subheading. They will
regard what they hear as a single heading.

The second example shows an image in which there are two lines of
text. The first line is "Ramones" and the second line is "Hey! Ho!
Let's Go". And its suggested HTML markup is
<h1>Ramones -
<span>Hey! Ho! Let's Go</span>
</h1>
The problems with that markup are:
1. Still, it doesn't markup the subheading. There is only a heading
element (<h1>). A <span> in a heading doesn't make the <span> a
subheading. (although you could use CSS to make it looks like a
subheading)
2. Screen reader users have no way to know the subheading. They will
regard what they hear as a single heading.


Sincerely,
Ian Yang

Received on Tuesday, 7 May 2013 14:39:28 UTC