Headings Accessibility Criteria

Owned by Melissa Chen (Unlicensed)

Jun 06, 2019

2 min read

Purpose of this criterion

to indicate start of main content
to mark up section headings within the main content area
to demarcate different navigational sections, such as top or main navigation, left or secondary navigation, and footer navigation
to mark up images (containing text) which have the appearance of headings visually

The presence of appropriate headings tags will allow screen reader users to:

Access the list of headings
Jump Directly to appropriate headings and read the respective content
Skim / Navigate through the headings and find their topic of interest

How to fix and verify

Use the tags pane to ensure that your PDF is logically tagged in the structure tree
Use the reading order tool to tag your headings

Important

Use a screen reader to read your document and verify if the headings are announced properly.

Screenshots

Screen Reader Demo of Headings Level 1 to 6

Click on the video file below to hear how a screen reader (in this case, NVDA) announces the headings.