Headings (Titles) and Accessibility
Within people.ua.edu, the "Title" element is used for headings. This includes subject headings and subheadings! Screen reader users skim the page to get an overall impression of a page's content and can jump from heading to heading. Users can hear an outline of the page's main ideas, then backtrack to read the parts they are most interested in. The main drawback to this technique is that too many pages lack titles. Without headings, this method of skimming through content is completely useless.
Authors should organize content with headings (titles). To the extent possible, the headings should represent an accurate outline of the content.
Do not use text formatting, such as font size or bolding of text to give the visual appearance of headings - use actual titles for all content headings. Assistive technologies and other browsers rely upon the literal markup of the page to determine structure. Items that are bolded or display in a bigger font are not interpreted to be structural elements.
Likewise, do not use titles to achieve visual results only. For instance, if you want to highlight or emphasize an element within your content that is not a heading, do not use the title element to achieve the visual appearance you want. Instead, change the text by making it bold, increasing the size slightly, or italicize it.
Authors should organize content with headings (titles). To the extent possible, the headings should represent an accurate outline of the content.
Do not use text formatting, such as font size or bolding of text to give the visual appearance of headings - use actual titles for all content headings. Assistive technologies and other browsers rely upon the literal markup of the page to determine structure. Items that are bolded or display in a bigger font are not interpreted to be structural elements.
Likewise, do not use titles to achieve visual results only. For instance, if you want to highlight or emphasize an element within your content that is not a heading, do not use the title element to achieve the visual appearance you want. Instead, change the text by making it bold, increasing the size slightly, or italicize it.