Skip to content
Accessibility
  • Home
  • Why Accessibility
    • Understanding Disability
    • Inclusive Design
    • Laws and Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
    • Courses
    • Documents
    • Websites
    • Procurement
    • Accessibility First Aid Kit
  • Course Design
  • Get Involved
    • 10-Week Accessibility Challenge
    • Course Accessibility Challenge
    • Five Core Skills
    • Digital Accessibility Grants
    • Trainings
    • Groups
  • Get Support

Heading hierarchy

Posted on April 6, 2023 (October 23, 2024) by amycarss

Issue

It’s not uncommon for people to create headings by just selecting a piece of text and making it bigger and bolder in the editing toolbar. This seems innocent enough, but it leads to a cascade of accessibility and usability problems.


What to do

Use the headings available in the text formatting tools of your editing software (Heading 1-Heading 6) to organize content on a web page in an outline-like order. Make your page title a Heading 1 and identify your main topics with heading 2s and any sub-topics with heading 3s, etc.

This helps all users and technologies understand how each part relates to the next. Nest headings sequentially (h3’s should be subcategories under an h2, for example) and don’t skip levels.

TIP: If you’re working in Word or Google Docs, turn on “outline view” to see your document’s heading hierarchy.

Recommended tools

  • Outline view (in Word and Google Docs)
  • Accessibility Insights extension (available for Chrome & Edge). To see the heading structure on a live web page, use the “Ad hoc tools.”

Who’s affected

People who:

  • Use screen readers to access the web (blind, low vision) and ask the screen reader to read all the headings on a page
  • Navigate by keyboard (hand mobility issues)
  • Have cognitive disabilities.
  • Use mobile devices

WCAG standard

  • Guideline 1.3.1: Info and Relationships
  • Guideline 2.4.10: Section headings are used to organize content 

Find more: Courses, Documents, Email & Social, Websites,
Core skills

Post navigation

 Link textPresentations 

Accessibility

Michigan Engineering Accessibility Team

[email protected]

Michigan Engineering

1221 Beal Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2102

+1 (734) 647-7000

Contact the College

Engineering Intranet

© 2025 The Regents of the University of Michigan | Safety and Security | Acceptable Use |Privacy Policy |U-M Main

Login