Digital Accessibility Spotlight #2: What Are Titles and Headings?

Why It Matters: 

Properly structured headings help people find information faster, result in better information layout for individuals with attention and cognitive disabilities, support screen reader navigation, and make content easier for everyone to use.

What Are “Titles and Headings”?

Titles and headings are word labels for the information in a document. They tell people the name of the document and how it is organized, so they can follow and navigate its contents better when using a screen reader or need support with focusing and organization. Whether you’re creating a webpage, Word document, Google Doc, Canvas page, or email, a title and headings provide structure and organization that benefits everyone

• Titles: Titles identify the document and should match the document’s name. A single title should only be used on documents with a cover page.
• Headings: Headings organize sections within the content. For single-page documents or documents without a cover page, begin the content with Heading 1 then use descending headings as needed. 

Headings help people:

• Find information faster
• Scan content more easily
• Understand how content is organized
• Navigate using assistive technologies such as screen readers

For many people, headings are a convenience. For people who use screen readers, they are an essential way to navigate a page or document because they allow the user to skip to different sections. Properly structured headings also help individuals with attention and cognitive disabilities better focus and understand a document’s layout and allow everyone to skim text faster to find what they need. Digital accessibility applies to documents, emails, websites, and other digital materials used across the university.

Tip: The document tabs and table of contents are built from your titles and headings. Check these features to verify that your heading structure is organized and follows the correct hierarchy.

Two Common Mistakes:

Many people create headings by making text larger, bold or a different color. While this changes how content looks, it does not create the structure that assistive technologies rely on to navigate and understand content. Screen readers do not announce font size changes or detect manual styling like bold, italics, and underline. It is fine to adjust the style of the built-in heading tools as desired. 

Do not skip heading levels, such as using heading 3 after heading 1. This causes confusion for screen reader users who will think they missed the heading 2 content. 

What to do instead: Use built-in heading styles, in descending order, in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Canvas and web content management systems. In Google Slides, use the slide title placeholder included in the template rather than creating a title in a separate text box.

Explore Resources at Your Own Pace

• Start with the basics: Review the Headings and Titles fundamentals to learn why headings matter and how they improve accessibility.
• Learn how to build accessible content: Explore how to create accessible headings using built-in heading styles and a logical heading hierarchy.
• Put it into practice: Use the Headings and Titles checklist to review content before publishing.
• Expand your accessibility knowledge: Explore the digital accessibility fundamentals.
• Dive deeper: Browse the Make It Accessible guide for additional resources and best practices.

What This Means for You

Nearly everyone at UW–Madison creates digital content. Using heading styles is one simple change that can make content easier to navigate and more accessible for everyone. Because everyone creates digital content, digital accessibility is a shared responsibility across the university.

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