Headings
What do I need to do?
Clearly identify headings using the header function instead of manually adjusting text size, font or color.
How do I do this?
Highlight the text you wish to format and choose 'Styles and Formatting' from the 'Format' menu. Click on your preferred heading style or make your own, remaining consistent throughout the document.
Because styles can be customized, you can create accessible headings that appear visually identical to manually created, inaccessible ones. For example, you may want a heading that is 16 point, bold, centered font. You only need to specify this information once in the styles task pane, then afterwards you can create accessible headings that will always be 16 point, bold, centered font. Each component of your style can be customized, so the various levels of your document can be formated to look exactly the way you desire.
The image below is a screenshot of the Styles and Formatting task pane.
Why is this important?
Headings provide structure and meaning to a document, but software programs cannot recognize headings when they are created manually (visually identified using font size, color or placement). Headings should be created using the styles and formatting toolbar so that software programs will identify the text as a heading, and thus differentiate between various sections of a document.
Headings are necessary for people using screenreaders and are also utilized by people using PDAs and cell phones with small screens. PDA or cell phone users will view only the headings of a document or website to obtain an overview of the content, since the small screen size can make it impossible to view all the content at once.
Using the formatting toolbar is also extremely valuable to an author when editing and revising a document. With a few mouse clicks, the Microsoft Outline View allows you to easily manipulate, restructure and navigate through pages of data, or to convert your outline into a hyperlinked Table of Contents or Powerpoint presentation. For example, you could update the look of 16 different headings by editing the style only once, rather than having to individually update each inaccessible heading. These features are invaluable to those working with long documents, like books, thesis papers or grant applications, but these functions are only available when you use the formatting toolbar and headings correctly.
Another advantage of using styles is that it helps prevent frustrating formatting problems when working on shared documents. For example, if someone used the "enter" button to create space between a paragraph and heading, but then another person adds to the document and pushes the text into the page break, you will have a seemingly random blank spot in your document. Someone will have to go through the entire document to remove the extra line spaces that were created when you used the enter buttom to create visual space. You will not have to manually edit the visual layout of your document when you use the styles and formatting functions correctly.
What is the source of this standard?
WCAG 2.0 Guideline 2.4.10 Section Headings: Section headings are used to organize the content.
Where can I get more information?
- Web Accessibility for All: "Structural Markup Tutorial"
- Understanding Styles in Microsoft Word
