It is important to use the correct headings in the correct places on your page to ensure a clear end-user experience for all.
Using headings sequentially
To add a heading on Contensis, you need to highlight the necessary text, click on the format box and choose the heading level you require ('Heading 2', 'Heading 3' or 'Heading 4'). The title of your page will automatically be formatted as a 'Heading 1' (H1).
On this page (and most like it), the text following the title is in the 'intro_user' style ('It is important to use the correct headings in the correct places'...etc). This is particularly useful for summarising the contents of your page in large text, without compromising accessibility. To choose this text style in Contensis, highlight the text you wish to enlarge and select 'intro_user' from the 'Styles' box in your toolbar. Never use a 'Heading 2' as a substitute for this text.
A ‘Heading 2’ (H2) should be used to title clearly defined sections in your body of text. A ‘Heading 3’ (H3) should be used for subheadings under an H2 to further split up text. A ‘Heading 4’ (H4) should only be used in very dense sections of text to help break up text within a section titled by an H3. Essentially, the use of H2, H3 and H4 headings should be as sequential and logical as possible. ‘Heading 5’ and ‘Heading 6’ headings are unnecessary and should be avoided.
Avoiding bold text
When writing or editing content for a webpage, it is important to ensure that you have not used bold text as a substitute for a heading. You can identify bold text in Contensis by clicking on the text and looking in the toolbar to see whether the ‘B’ is highlighted for bold. While bold text may appear to adequately split up text for able-sighted users, a screen reader won’t make the distinction between this and ordinary paragraph text.
On the other hand, you should never use a heading style to create emphasis within the body of text. To make certain keywords within your body of text stand out, you should embolden them. Note that italics are hard to read on a screen, particularly for partially-sighted users, so should only be used for a small selection of words, only in particular circumstances (see guidelines for italics use on the 'Writing for the web' page).
Using 'Heading 1'
On Contensis, the title of your page will automatically be created as an H1. The title of your page should be the only H1 used on the page since blind or partially sighted users may programme their screen readers to read H1 headings before any other text (so that they can skim a page's content). Having more than one H1, or an H1 in place of an H2, would mean that these users would not be able to follow a page’s logical page structure. You can use as many H2, H3 or H4 subheadings as necessary to split up the body of text.
See an example of a page with headings used sequentially. Once you have ensured that your page has appropriate headings, you must continue to carry out the remaining manual accessibility checks under the accessibility checklist to ensure you meet all the accessibility guidelines.