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If I have a promo hero stuffs before the first header of a page as in the attached image, then should the heading text of the hero stuff be done with a header element as in h1/h2 etc. or just normal p text? I need it to be WCAG 2.0 AA accessible.

What do you guys thinks? The text "Study" is h2 for me. Should "Postgraduate …" be h2 also?

Screenshot of webpage showing a banner "Postgraduate …" above the heading "Study"

unor
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Hello Universe
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1 Answers1

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You have to consider what your heading hierarchy will look like:

If you chose to use a h2 for both:

  • Web site title
    • Postgraduate information evening
    • Study

Or if you chose not to

  • Web site title
    • Study

Then you have to think about some questions:

  • Are "Postgraduate... " and "Study" the same level of information?
  • Does navigating thru the heading hierarchy give coherent user experience?

I would say that if you consider that "Postgraduate information evening" is the information that they would seek when they land on this page, then you can give it a h2 to improve user navigation. But if it's just an article promoted inside the "Study" hierarchy, it doesn't have to be as it does not improve user experience.

My opinion is : if the text links to another page, then it doesn't have to be in the heading hierarchy.

Adam
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  • However the text "Postgraduate information evening" has been styled to look like a heading. So according to WCAG 2.0, does it not mean I will have to give a proper heading (aka h1/h2/etc)? – Hello Universe Sep 16 '15 at 01:06
  • Btw, I do not have option to change the styles of the text "Postgraduate information evening" – Hello Universe Sep 16 '15 at 01:07
  • No need to enclose a big(ger) text in a heading. Read the following page: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/F43.html . As long as it is not a new section of the document it can be misleading – Adam Sep 16 '15 at 06:51
  • HI @Adam I do not have control on the text size over there. It will visually look as it looks. Now the question is whether it should be h2 tag or just plain p tag styled? What will conform the WCAG accessiblity. – Hello Universe Sep 16 '15 at 07:09
  • WCAG says nothing about heading text size. So you don't have to modify your text size, no matter what you chose to do. From my point of view, something before the start of the content is not a new section of the document. – Adam Sep 16 '15 at 07:17
  • I disagree . I am quite certain WCAG 2.0 is quite specific about heading. – Hello Universe Sep 18 '15 at 01:55
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    On the contrary it explicitly says that you must not use heading for presentational effect. – Adam Sep 18 '15 at 18:00