Overview
This article helps students, faculty, and staff understand the meaning, purpose, and best practices of headings to help meet digital accessibility standards in their content. It provides tips, examples, and more resources. Always refer to ADA digital accessibility standards for the most up-to-date compliance requirements.
What Are Headings?
Headings provide a structural hierarchy in documents and websites. Properly structured headings help all readers navigate documents efficiently. Visual readers rely on heading appearance to scan content, while screen reader users depend on programmatic heading structure to jump between sections. Without correct heading formatting, screen reader users may have to read the entire document to find specific information.
Best Practices
Source: Section508.gov – Document Headings
- Follow a logical heading structure.
- Heading 1 introduces the overall topic.
- Heading 2 breaks content into major sections under Heading 1.
- Heading 3 further breaks down sections under Heading 2.
- Don’t skip heading levels, like Heading 1 to Heading 4.
- Always use built-in heading styles in Word, PowerPoint, and other platforms to properly identify headings. They’re usually found in the styles pane within the editor.
Still Need Help?
Creative Production offers help with document formatting, design, and redesign if needed. Please note, Creative Production cannot ensure accessibility for content created by other users. They may need to re-create a document to ensure accessibly, if you choose to use their services. Costs apply. Submit a ticket to request Creative Production services
IT Solutions primarily supports digital accessibility for academic and course-related materials including document accessibility, captioning and transcription services. Support for other content may be available if time allows, with costs applying to non-course materials. Submit a ticket to request IT Solutions services