Accessible headings in digital content

Start by highlighting the title text in your document or page and apply the ‘Title’ style. Then select your first heading and apply ‘Heading 1’ from the styles menu. Work your way down to subtitles or nested headings applying further styles as you go e.g. 

>  Document Title (Title Style) 

>  First Heading (Heading 1 Style) 

>  Subheading (Heading 2 Style) 

>  Subheading (Heading 3 Style) 

>  Second Heading (Heading 1 Style) 

>  Subheading (Heading 2 Style) 

For more information about applying styles in your document, take a look at this Microsoft guide: Improving Heading Accessibility

The below image denotes the use of Heading Styles in Canvas. Simply highlight text, and then select the appropriate style type for the ‘paragraph’ or ‘heading’ drop down.  

The below image denotes the use of Heading Styles in Canvas. Simply highlight text, and then select the appropriate style type for the ‘paragraph’ or ‘heading’ drop-down.  

Its good practice to apply headings in a sequential order when applying them and not skip headings, for example: Make sure that a Heading 2 is not followed directly by a Heading 4. It is OK to skip ranks when closing subsections, for instance, a Heading 2 beginning a new section, can follow a Heading 4 as it closes the previous section. 

The following example skips from Heading 2 to Heading 4, this can be confusing: 

> Heading 1 

> Heading 2 

> Heading 4 

Headings should always be placed in sequential order, but it’s OK to skip ranks when closing a section. There should be a singular Heading 1 heading on your page, this should be your title, all other headings must be Heading 2 onwards: 

> Heading 1 

> Heading 2 

> Heading 3 

> Heading 2 

Don’t make your own heading by bolding the text or enlarging the font. The code behind the inbuilt styles will not be available to screen readers and users will not be able to skip to this section.