Research Guides: NYU LibGuide Accessibility: Heading Levels and Logical Order

Overview

UNC School of Medicine's WebGuide on Accessibility states:

Headings are used to separate content on a web page into meaningful sections. They give structure to a page and simplify page readability. Site visitors look at headings when scanning a page for content. They can easily determine where new topics are introduced and find what they’re interested in. Headers describe what’s on your page, so make sure they’re descriptive and compelling. Well-structured headings also improve search engine optimization.

Well-written headings are an important tool for helping users scan quickly.
The ability to scan quickly is particularly important for older adults because they tend to stop scanning and start reading more frequently. If headings are not descriptive or plentiful enough, the user may start reading in places that do not offer the information they are seeking, thereby slowing them down unnecessarily.
Use Unique and Descriptive Headings – ensure that headings are descriptive and relate to the content they introduce. If headings are too similar to one another, users may have to hesitate and re-read to decipher the difference.

Heading levels are used in the body of the text, and in logical order

Double check that your box titles are all visible (no floating box titles)
Box titles are H2, any subheadings within that content box should go in order starting from H3, H4, H5.
This makes it easier for screen reader users to scan the content
Use the rich text editor to select the proper heading level

LibGuide Help Center Resources:

Using the Rich Text Editor
The Rich Text Editor is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that works much like a word processor. When editing a Rich Text/HTML content item, it will allow you to easily add and format text, images, and tables. To make advanced customizations, you can even switch to the Source mode to view the underlying HTML code.
Adding and editing Rich Text/HTML content items
The Rich Text/HTML content item is your catch all for pretty much anything. It allows you to add text, images, tables, and even code. Anything you can do in HTML, you can also do in a rich text box. Rich Text/HTML content items are not included in your assets library (Content > Assets), so they can only be reused by reusing the entire box.
System settings: accessibility (good for background info)
The Accessibility tab (CMS only) allows you to enable (or disable) the use of the H1 and H2 heading choices in the rich text editor. By default, these heading choices are disabled so that the first heading choice is the H3 tag. This is done to preserve web-accessible formatting and WCAG 2.0 compliance.

Examples

Heading 1 = Page/Tab Title (heading level not available in Rich Text editor)

Heading 2 = Box Title (heading level not available in Rich Text Editor)

Heading 3

Additional content

This the first available heading level in the Rich Text Editor. You can also include a list:

List item
List item

Or you can include a numbered list:

Item 1
Item 2

Heading 4

This will add a sub-section under heading 3. It can also include lists, as can any heading after:

List item
- List sub item
- List sub item
List item

Heading 5

Sub-sub section

Heading 6

Sub-sub-sub section

Additional Resources

WebAIM - Semantic Structure: Regions, Headings, and Lists
A heading describes the content that follows it, much like a news headline. When arriving at a new page, sighted users gravitate toward headings to quickly find what they want on the page. Screen reader and other assistive technology users can also skip from heading to heading.
Accessible U: Headings
This article shows you how to format headings to improve the reading experience of all your readers, whether they read with their eyes or with their ears using a screen reader.
Accessible U: Bulleted & Numbered Lists
Presenting a “wall of text” in a document or Web site can discourage reading. Instead, present key concepts as bulleted lists where possible.
UNC School of Medicine Digital Accessibility: Headings
Online resource that outlines how and why to use headings in web documents.