Headings and structure

Accessible content is content people can use whether they see, hear, move or read differently than you do. Much of it is decided by editors, not developers: the heading you choose, the words in a link, the description of a photo.

This course is for the people who write and post. It starts with the part that helps everyone fastest: structure.

Who you are writing for

People use the web in many ways:

• Screen readers read the page aloud or send it to a braille display. Many blind and low-vision people use them, along with some people with reading disabilities.
• Screen magnifiers enlarge a small part of the screen at a time.
• Keyboard only, without a mouse, because of a motor disability or a broken trackpad.
• Voice control, saying "click Apply now" instead of clicking.
• Captions, for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, or in a quiet room.

You do not need to master these tools. You need to give them what they rely on, and structure comes first.

The rule behind it

For state and local governments, the Department of Justice's 2024 rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act sets the technical standard: WCAG 2.1, Level AA. WCAG is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

ADA.gov lists the compliance dates, as extended by an interim final rule published April 20, 2026: April 26, 2027 for governments serving 50,000 or more people, and April 26, 2028 for smaller governments and special districts.

This course teaches the editor's share of WCAG 2.1 AA. The habits are worth starting now, whatever your date.

How people move through a page

A sighted reader scans a page by its big bold lines. A screen reader user does the same thing with headings: a keystroke jumps from one heading to the next, or lists them all. In WebAIM's screen reader survey of December 2023 and January 2024, 71.6 percent of respondents said they find information on a long page by moving through its headings.

That only works when the headings are real. Bold text in a big font looks like a heading but is announced as ordinary text, so it is invisible to that navigation.

Use real headings, in order

In WordPress, Drupal, Word or Google Docs, use the heading styles: Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3. Then follow the outline:

• Heading 1 is the page title. One per page. Most website templates already supply it.
• Heading 2 names each main section.
• Heading 3 names a subsection inside a Heading 2 section.

Pick the level for the outline, not for its size. If a Heading 3 looks too big or too small, that is a design question for whoever manages the site's styles. Do not skip from Heading 2 to Heading 4 because you prefer how it looks.

Write headings that say something

A heading should tell the reader what is in the section. "Pay a water bill online" beats "Online." "Meeting schedule for 2027" beats "Information." Someone jumping from heading to heading should be able to find what they came for without reading the paragraphs.

Lists and paragraphs

Use the editor's list buttons for lists, not typed dashes or numbers. A real list tells a screen reader "list, 5 items," so the listener knows how much is coming.

Keep paragraphs short: one idea each. That helps people with cognitive disabilities, people reading in a second language, and everyone on a phone.