[CEUD-ICT] Accessibility of multiple main headings in HTML5 webpages

[Alan M. Dalton]

Hi,

I'm wondering about multiple main headings in HTML5 webpages, and how
accessible they are for assistive technology users today.

The HTML5 specification allows a webpage to have multiple "article"
elements. Each "article" element can have a main heading, marked as <h1> in
the source code. A main heading in an article in an HTML5 webpage is only a
main heading for the content of that article; it is not a main heading for
content of the whole webpage. This is very different to the approach in
HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0, where each webpage typically has only one main
heading for all its content [1].

Having multiple "article" elements, each with its own main heading, seems
very practical. A lot of modern webpages (such as blogs) are basically a
collection of articles from various sources. With HTML5, a webpage author
can copy an entire article from somebody else's webpage, and paste it
directly into his own webpage, without having to worry about the structure
of his webpage.

Mark Pilgrim explains how to use multiple main headings in HTML5 webpages,
in his "What Does It All Mean?" article [2]. He compares an XHTML 1.0
version of a weblog with an HTML5 version. Here's a simplified version of
his XHTML 1.0 version [3] :
      <div>
            <h1>My Weblog</h1>
      </div>
      <div>
            <h2>Travel day</h2>
            <p>Lorem ipsum ... </p>
      </div>
      <div>
            <h2>I'm going to Prague!</h2>
            <p>Lorem ipsum ... </p>
      </div>
Here's a simplified version of his HTML5 version [4] :
      <header>
            <hgroup>
                  <h1>My Weblog</h1>
            </hgroup>
      </header>
      <article>
            <header>
                  <h1>Travel day</h1>
            </header>
            <p>Lorem ipsum ... </p>
      </article>
      <article>
            <header>
                  <h1>I'm going to Prague!</h1>
            </header>
            <p>Lorem ipsum ... </p>
      </article>

What do you think of the accessibility of this, considering the skills,
expectations, and software that assistive technology users have today? What
do you think of the accessibility of a longer HTML5 webpage, such as Jeremy
Keith's "Science Hack Day" website [5]?

[1] http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/Use_h1_for_Title
[2] http://diveintohtml5.org/semantics.html
[3] http://diveintohtml5.org/examples/blog-original.html
[4] http://diveintohtml5.org/examples/blog-html5.html
[5] http://www.sciencehackday.com/

Regards,
Alan.
_
Alan Dalton
Accessibility Development Advisor for EtA http://www.nda.ie/eta
Access Officer for NDA http://www.nda.ie

Address: National Disability Authority, 25 Clyde Road, Dublin 4.
_


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