Tonico, At the risk of flogging a dead horse, I realised that I gave you only an opinion instead of a reason why there should be only one <h1> on a page.
I think it is critical that even if there are two distinct topics on a page, there must be some overall summary of them, and this should be used on the pages <title></title> and in the pages <h1></h1>. Why? If not for sighted people, then at least for blind users. Let's use a ridiculous example - a page with two topics - "frogs" and "bats". 1. titles - what to use ------------------- First of all, on a page with two distinct topics, what you would use for your page <title>? A. "Frogs"? B. "Bats"? C. "Frogs and Bats"? - this third option is the only one that describes the pages contents. It is also looking like a good example of an overall <h1>. 2. Confusion over page content ------------------- What about blind users accessing the page's contents. There are many ways they could access the content, but they may let the screen reader go straight into reading the contents on the page (rather than skimming via links or headings). Assuming you have wrapped both headings (frogs and bats) in <h1> elements the first thing a blind user will hears is <h1>Frogs</h1>. I have watched blind users in action. They do not have the luxury of glancing over the page to check out its contents. They often have to make quick decisions on what is on a page. They may assume (based on the pages main heading) that this page is about "Frogs". After all, it is the first title on the page and there is no mention of bats. And what if the blind user was looking for bats? They may quickly leave the page assuming it was only on frogs. The blind users I have watched have to make many more span decisions than blind users. "Do I want to sit here and listen to this entire page or is this quick section I have read enough to tell me the content is probably not here?". 3. Logical content breakup ------------------- >From a purely logical point of view there should never be totally unrelated sections of content on one page - this would confuse sighted and blind users. There must be a reason you decided to put frogs and bats on the same page - some thematic between the two topics. For example: "Frogs and Bats of Eastern Australia" "My special interests - frogs and bats" "Tasty meals - frogs and bats" If any of these were used as a title and the <h1> on the page, the content would have much more meaning for a blind user (as well as a sighted user). Blind users coming to this page are given a clear indication that on this page as both frogs and bats are mentioned. Even better, these two topics are described along with their thematic relationship. Anyone reading these headings would instantly understand and accept the two topics on the page now. With a descriptive heading like one of the examples above, content becomes more accessible to a blind user. If they were interested in bats, they can skip over the frogs section, knowing that there is info on bats below. 4. Accessible markup ------------------- For blind users especially, but also for sighted users, the markup would be much more understandable (and therefore accessible) as: <title>Frogs and Bats of Eastern Australia</title> <h1>Frogs and Bats of Eastern Australia</h1> <h2>Frogs</h2> Blurb about frogs... <h2>Bats</h2> Blurb about Bats... Does this make sense? I know... I really have to get a life :( Russ > We could probably argue this back and forward, but I feel very strongly that > there should be only one <h1> on a page and it should be the page title. I > used to think it should be the site name but am moving away from that stance > now. ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help *****************************************************