Headings

Use built-in title, subtitle, and heading styles

Why Do This?

Headings in a document or web page make it look well-organized, give an at-a-glance view of the topics covered, help people navigate to various sections easily, and can auto-generate a table of contents for you.  Also, using headings correctly makes the document accessible!

• Headings give the reader and screen reader user an idea of what the section is all about.  
   
• Title, Subtitle, and Headings are meant to be scanned, both visually and with assistive technology.

How to Do This?

• Use the built-in Title and Subtitle styles specifically for the title and subtitle of the document. 
• Use the built-in heading styles and create descriptive heading texts to make it easier for screen reader users to determine the structure of the document and navigate the headings. 
• Organize headings in the prescribed logical order and do not skip heading levels. For example, use Heading 1, Heading 2, and then Heading 3 etc.
• If using the Title style, this would be the Heading 1 and then start with Heading 2 in the document.
• Organize the information in your document into small chunks. Ideally, each heading would include only a few paragraphs.

To add a heading style in Word:

1. Type the text you want into a Word document.
2. Select a sentence that you want to add a header to.
3. Select Home > Styles (or press Alt+H, then L), and then select the heading you want, such as the Heading 2 button.

To Add Headings in Canvas

How to Check for Accessibility?

• To check that the order of headings is logical, visually scan your document's table of contents.
   
• Verify that the Headings Show in the Navigation Pane. Press CTRL _ F on the keyboard to open the Navigation Pane.

Don't do this:

• If you create your headings by enlarging the font, changing the font style and color, the text is still tagged in the app as “Normal” text. This is a “faux” heading. It looks like a heading, but doesn’t act like a heading.