Understanding SC 2.4.10: Section Headings (Level AAA)

In Brief

Goal

Users understand how content is organized in sections.

What to do

Where content is organized in sections, provide section headings.

Why it's important

People can orient themselves, especially those with cognitive or visual disabilities.

Intent

The intent of this Success Criterion is to provide headings for sections of a Web page, when the page is organized into sections. For instance, long documents are often divided into a variety of chapters, chapters have subtopics, etc. When such sections exist, they need to have headings that introduce them. This clearly indicates the organization of the content, facilitates navigation within the content, and provides mental "handles" that aid in comprehension of the content. Other page elements may complement headings to improve presentation (e.g., horizontal rules and boxes), but visual presentation is not sufficient to identify document sections.

This provision is included at Level AAA because it cannot be applied to all types of content and it may not always be possible to insert headings. For example, when posting a pre-existing document to the Web, headings that an author did not include in the original document cannot be inserted. Or, a long letter would often cover different topics, but putting headings into a letter would be very strange. However, if a document can be broken up into sections with headings, it facilitates both understanding and navigation.

Benefits

• People who are blind will know when they have moved from one section of a Web page to another and will know the purpose of each section.
• People with some learning disabilities will be able to use the headings to understand the overall organization of the page content more easily.
• People who navigate content by keyboard will be able to jump the focus from heading to heading, enabling them to find quickly content of interest.
• In pages where content in part of the page updates, headings can be used to quickly access updated content.

Examples

• A menu contains different sections for different courses. Each section has a heading: Appetizers, Salad, Soup, Entree, Dessert.
• A Web application contains a settings page that is divided into groups of related settings. Each section contains a heading describing the class of settings.

Related Resources

Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.

• WebAIM: Semantic Structure
• Heading Tags

Techniques

Each numbered item in this section represents a technique or combination of techniques that the WCAG Working Group deems sufficient for meeting this Success Criterion. However, it is not necessary to use these particular techniques. For information on using other techniques, see Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria, particularly the "Other Techniques" section.