Why we use headings

There’s been a lot of debate about headings lately on the GAWDS mailing list and at the recent PSF event. I think this is great because it means that people are discussing the finer points of accessibility and working on the details.
I thought I'd repost my response on the GAWDS list here for those who don't use the GAWDS mailing list (shame on you!).

The problem with headings is that nobody seems to be able to agree on which heading needs to start the page, and whether it’s OK to skip a heading or not. The problem is further compounded by automated tools which will fail you if you use more than one H1 or if you skip a heading element (say H2 to H4).

I need to make it clear that I'm not advocating sloppy structure, sites should be designed with a logical heirarchy as part of good design practice.

I’ve put something together here to try and illustrate how JAWS users use headings and why these main concerns may or may not actually be that important from a practical perspective. So if you've inherited a site or these changes are out of your control you'll be able to have a better idea of their impact.

How Screen Reader users use headings

Here are some examples (for those that haven't had the opportunity to use a screen reader like JAWS):
By pressing "H" on the keyboard, the user can cycle through headings. JAWS will announce the status of each heading as it appears in the cycle e.g. "heading level 1 company name", so in this way, the user gets an indication of the order of the headings as they appear on the page and what heading level they have been given (we'll come back to that in a minute).

Another way is by bringing up the heading list dialogue (insert + f6 in JAWS), which displays a list of all the headings on the page. The user can cycle through the headings using the up and down keys, the level of each heading is also announced in this dialogue. The dialogue has controls so that the user can sort headings by alphabetical order or tab order and also only to list headings at each level. I've personally never seen these dialogues used, but different users will have different methods, and I don't spend as much time with these guys as I would like.

So in terms of what the user expects to see as a H1 or H2 is highly dependent on whether they've visited the site before as each site has a slightly different approach to how headings are used (I doubt that this will ever change) so I think the most important thing is consistency.

Consistency is the key

If you're using H1 for your site logo, article heading or navigation heading, then you need to keep using that on every page of the site. If you find yourself in the position where you don't have a logical H3 for the page, but you've consistently implemented H4 for your section headings then in my view (and I'm sure others will disagree) you should keep on using the H4. Don't feel inclined to change it to a H3 just for that page just because you don't want to skip a heading level or to pass through some automated accessibility testing robot.

This is important because if you happen to have a lot of headings on the page and typically the user is looking for a certain H4, they could assume that this new page doesn't have the information they are looking for because it has been changed to H3.

There is a counter-argument to this because if you have a H2 and no H3, you may assume that the user won't look for a H4. But this is a weak hypothesis, because if the user is using the "H" key as described above, they will happen across the next headings whether it be a H3 or a H4. If they are using the headings dialogue, the same is true. If they are using the dialogue to list the H3s only and find nothing, this is also fine, because they will be looking for the H3 equivalent of what they found on another page. If there is not one, then it is logical that none are present.

I think the debate is useful and interesting in that a consensus will bring greater consistency across the web, but developers shouldn't mistake this as being a critical issue, the key (in my opinion) is to use lots of headings (as long as they are relevant) and use them consistently across all pages. And I'm aware that what I've stated may not quite be in accordance with W3C specifications (I'm not sure), but works best from a practical perspective.

I hope someone finds some of this useful.
If you're a screen reader user, I'd love to hear from you.

PSF accessibility gathering

Public Sector Forums (PSF) made my week by facilitating a presentation where I got to present along side some of my favorite accessibility names. Bruce Lawson, Patrick Lauke, Anne McMeekin, Ian Lloyd, and Dan Champion, (who organised the event for PSF). The event took place in the function suite of Edgbaston cricket grounds yesterday.

The event seems to have been a big success with "exemplary" speaker feedback. A big plus for me was getting to spend some time with some really interesting people.

If you're interested in seeing them, Patrick took some photos of the event and the preceding night out.

GAWDS Re-design

The GAWDS website is up for a re-design with a few useful prizes up for grabs, and of course the prestige of designing a site used by the largest group of accessible web designers in the world.

Information about entering the competition can be found on the GAWDS homepage.

The blind lead the blind - DTI debacle continues...

Those of you that signed a petition asking that government start taking web accessibility seriously will have had an e-mail response that reads like a bad joke.

Last year, Bruce Lawson and Daniel Champion wrote about the abysmal quality of the newly launched DTI website. It was revealed that the site cost in excess of £200,000, but the tables based layout was entirely dependent on the user's browser supporting JavaScript. It was an embarrassment and it was courtesy of one of our most important central government offices.

10 Downing Street has responded to the petition assuring that accessibility is taken very seriously and to prove it they have put their best people on the case:

Action 7 of the Prime Minister's Digital Strategy is to 'improve accessibility to technology for the digitally excluded and ease of use for the disabled'.

This strategy is to be implemented by DTI with support from OGC and eGU (now the Cabinet Office Delivery and Transformation Group). A cross-government review of the Digital Strategy is currently under way under the supervision of the DTI).

You've got to be kidding me.

Power to the people. eh?

Happy Birthday Naomi!

Yep, that's right, another Broome offspring celebrates their Birthday. Today my little girl turned 10. Happy Birthday babe. All done now until next year.

Happy Birthday Noah!

Before I post anything else I have to say a BIG Happy Birthday to my son and middle child Noah who was 8 on the 24th of Feb. Nearly a month ago. I know. Damn blog and having to keep it up to date!

Noah's Birthday was a success though. We all went to the Moscow State Circus and had a great time although we had to change seats because of the huge tent mast that obscured our view. It was also a bit strange that all the performers had support wires. I thought it took the edge off the performance when the participants can't plunge to their doom, but that's just sick fascination on my part I guess. The acrobats were fantastic though.

We then stuffed our faces at the local 'China China' and wobbled home with fat bellies.

Yum.

The Dutch lead (again)

So we all know that the Netherlands is the best place to bring up your kids already, but I fell over this today while reading through the GAWDS mailing list. It's a link to an article entitled
"New Dutch accessibility law" which announces a fairly detailed and comprehensive law ensuring that any new Dutch government sites are accessible and any older ones made accessible by 2011.

I get so frustrated/ jealous when I think about the DTI debacle and how we just can't get our act together in the UK. Web managers are largely left to their own devices here and many find it's too much of an effort to consider the needs of their disabled constituents.

I'm going to stop ranting there for the time being. I don't want to distract from the fact that the Dutch have done something pretty amazing if you compare this to the policies of UK and other developed nations. They made a decision to make something better. Such ground breaking ideas seem to rarely enter the minds of British politicians who seem to be struggling to keep the status quo.