Headings and subheadings play a critical role in accessibility. Most web pages and documents include a main heading that identifies the title or main topic, and subheadings that identify the start of new sections. Visibly, headings typically appear in a larger, bolder font than the surrounding text. Headings benefit all users, as they keep content organized and help users quickly find the particular content they’re looking for. Headings and subheadings should provide an outline of page content, so users can understand how the page is structured and easily navigate between headings.
In order for screen reader users to benefit from headings, the headings must be identified as such (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) using the heading features that are provided by the authoring tool. Virtually every document authoring format includes support for headings and subheadings.
Headings should form an outline of the page content with heading levels differentiating the main points and subpoints of your content. (Heading 1 for the main heading, Heading 2 for the first level of sub-headings, etc.). Choose headings based on the appropriate level, not because of how they look.
This enables screen reader users to understand how the page is organized. If the heading structure skips or reverses heading levels, this breaks the outline and users have a much harder time figuring out the relationships between sections of the page.
Screen readers also have features that enable users to jump quickly between headings with a single key-stroke, or to view an outline of the page created from its heading structure. This functionality makes it possible for screen reader users to navigate within a page with the same efficiency as sighted users.
Avoid using bold or underlined text in place of a heading style. Assistive devices do not recognize bold text as a heading. Underlined text may be confused with links.
Avoid using all capital letters as headings. Screen readers associate strings of capital letters as acronyms. This means they read them out letter by letter instead of reading them as a word.
Do not use empty headings (<H1></H1>) for spacing or formatting. If you use an empty heading a screen reader will alert the user that a heading is present, but it will not read out any text because there is none available to read. This may confuse users and could keep them from accessing the information on the page. If a user is navigating the contents of the page and they encounter an empty heading, they may move forward to the next heading in the list and could potentially miss entire sections of content.
For more details on headings and specifically the empty heading tag, see Empty Heading Tag, an article hosted by Equalize Digital.
Techniques for Word
In Word, add headings using the built-in heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) available in the Ribbon. To change the appearance of any of these heading styles, simply right-click on the style button and select “Modify.”
Techniques for PDF
If a PDF document is created from an authoring tool that supports headings and exports to tagged PDF (e.g., Microsoft Word), and these features were used properly when authoring the document, the document’s heading structure should be preserved within the PDF.
This can be checked and/or edited using either of two methods in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC:
Using the Tag Tree
To inspect the tag tree of a tagged document, follow these steps:
- Select Menu > View > Show/Hide > Side Panels > Accessibility Tags. This will display the tags in descending order from top to bottom.
- Review the tag tree of the PDF, checking to be sure headings are tagged as headings at the appropriate levels to form an outline of the page content (e.g., <H1>, <H2>, <H3>).
Using the Reading Order Tool
Adding headings to an untagged document using the Reading Order tool is part of a manual tagging, or remediation process, and will require tagging the entire document. For more information, see the Adobe Support documentation on using the Reading Order tool for PDFs. Additional training on using the Reading Order tool to remediate a PDF document manually is recommended.
To add heading tags using the Reading Order tool, follow these steps:
- From the All Tools panel, select Prepare for Accessibility, then select the Fix Reading Order tool.
- Marquee the text, then apply the appropriate heading structure from the options in the Reading Order dialogue box.
NOTE: Modifying PDFs can have unpredictable results. Save often! (Saving multiple versions is recommended.)
Techniques for Google Docs
In Google Docs, headings are selected from the Styles selector on the toolbar.
