Headers help to visually and structurally organize a website. A proper heading structure enables assistive technology users to navigate through them and go directly to the most relevant content for their search. So, if you are using accessibility overlay tools, you must ensure that it does not compromise your web content, including headings.
You should arrange the headers in the order of
their importance, from most to least significant. Not only should they be
structurally organized, but you should visually organize them. Each heading
level should have distinct text styles; typically, font size aids in
distinguishing between different header levels. A heading level one (h2>)
would, for example, have a font size of 18, a heading level two (h3>) would
have a font size of 16, and so on. You can use color to distinguish between
different header levels if it is not the only text style used.
The
Advantages of Headings
Using headings gives users a sense of how you
organized and structured the page. They appear larger and more distinct than
the surrounding text, guiding the eye around the page. Using headings and
making them visible is especially beneficial for users with cognitive
disabilities.
Screen reader users can benefit from headers
if the underlying code for a page's headings is correct. For example, they can
navigate a page by headings, listen to a list of all headers, and skip to the
desired one to begin reading at that point. Additionally, they can use these
features to skip repeated content blocks such as headers, menus, and sidebars.
Best
Practices in Development
If you own a website, you must divide most of
your web page content into sections, using headings to organize them. You can
use sectioning elements to indicate these sections and use the first content
that acts as a label as a heading.
It would be best if you also organized your
pages into landmarks. In addition, you must apply ARIA labels to some
landmarks, such as complementaries, navigations, and regions. Choosing the
proper accessibility overlay tools will help you with this.
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