This is a DRAFT resource that supports Working Drafts of WCAG 3. Content in this resource is not mature and should not be considered authoritative. It may be changed, replaced or removed at any time.
🔙 WCAG 3.0 (Silver) Guidelines (Structured content)
Method: Relevant Headings
Platform
Desktop and mobile platforms such as Windows10, iOS, and Android.
Technology
- Documents such as PDF, word processing documents, ePub, and slideware.
- Web-based languages such as HTML, and ARIA.
Summary
- Headings are used as navigation features by any user who has a disability that impacts their ability to read. If the heading is not relevant to the subsequent content, it cannot successfully provide navigation support.
- People who are trying to locate controls in an application rely on headings.
How it solves user need
People can understand the purpose and function of content and sections.
Outcome
This method supports the outcome Headings with levels organize content.
Detailed description
- All headings should contain an appropriate amount of information to allow the user to understand the content being presented between that heading and the next heading.
- Headings are not restricted to text content, they can be used to identify sections containing only images, links, or multimedia.
Dependencies
None for this Functional Outcome
Headings in native iOS
See the heading chapter of Apple developer documentation.
{
"components": [
{
"role": "heading",
"text": "Mars - Earth’s neighbor"
}
]
}
Headings in native Android
See the heading section of Android developer documentation
If a particular View element represents a heading, you can indicate its purpose for accessibility services by setting the element's android:accessibilityHeading attribute to true.
Atomic Tests
Unit Tested: Segments or groups of content
Measurement: Create a percentage of the expected headings within a view that have appropriate text alternatives percentage of the expected headings that are present is provided.
Test for sections with headings
Procedure
- Check that the content is divided into separate sections
- Check that each section on the page starts with a heading.
Expected Results
Checks #1 and #2 are true.
Test for relevance of headings
Procedure
- Check that each heading relates to the content contained in the section
Expected Results
Holistic Tests
- Still to be developed. We will include this in a future working draft.
W3C Resources
- None currently documented.
Non-W3C Resources
- None currently documented.