During user testing I have not seen this cause any problems, particularly when only one level is skipped. It is certainly odd when you jump from an <h1> or <h2> to an <h5> or <h6>, but users generally take even extreme cases like this in their stride (yes, we do come across sites like this!). In general, coding techniques are so poor and inconsistent that users have pretty low expectations and are grateful when header elements are used at all.
It's difficult enough to form a mental model of a page, and in my experience users tend to note the presence of headers as separators between blocks of content but do not pay much attention to the nesting. In my opinion, consistency of use is more important. Of course this reflects the appalling state of web design as it exists now, and maybe in 5 years time standards will have risen sufficiently that users' expectations will be higher. Steve -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of tee Sent: 28 March 2008 19:09 To: [email protected] Subject: [WSG] nest heading properly My question isn't about how to nest headings properly E823 - 1 instance(s): Heading elements must be ordered properly. For example, in HTML H2 elements should follow H1 elements, H3 elements should follow H2 elements, etc. Developers should not skip levels (e.g., H1 directly to H3). Do not use headings to create font effects. See http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-HTML-TECHS/#document-headers (displayed in new window). I am curious how much benefit it goes to accessibility. What ill effect it has on assistive user agents if headings are not nested properly. Semantically, I fully understand the need for proper order of heading elements, but in real world practice, I have yet noticing any site that follow this to the letter, and it's more than a challenge for a complicated columned layout that designer tends to use h3 for every bold text title. tee ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ******************************************************************* ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
