Heading tags help assistive technology users to understand how content is structured. They're also used for in-page screen reader navigation.
Issue: Headings are not structured
When adding heading tags, you should ensure that they follow a nested structure. Heading 1 (h1) is used for the primary heading, in Cascade this is populated by the page title field so you should never use a Heading 1 tag when editing content. Subsequent headings should start with Heading 2 (h2) and be ordered numerically from there. We don’t recommend going past Heading 3 (h3) or 4 (h4).
Issue: Empty headings
Occasionally when heading text is removed from a page there is still a piece of code that gets left behind. This error can also appear if an image without alternative text is being used as a heading.
Don’t use headings for emphasis
This won’t show up as an error but it is bad practice to use headings for visual emphasis on a page. Headings should ONLY be used for structuring content on the page. If you have pages where entire sentences or paragraphs are marked as a heading the style of that page.
Finding and fixing errors
A new dashboard has been set up within Siteimprove to display these errors. You’ll need to log in to Siteimprove to view the errors on your page. If you do not know your password for Siteimprove email back and we can resend the password link.
View instructions and screenshots for fixing heading accessibility errors in Siteimprove. We want our knowledgebase resource to be helpful and welcome feedback if there is confusion about the instructions.
Additional Resources
Accessible Text Content (Headings and Content Structure) →
Understanding Accessibility Conformance Standards →
Sent to Cascade Users Oct. 11, 2022