Techniques for WCAG 2.0

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T3: Using standard text formatting conventions for headings


Plain text documents. Not applicable to technologies that contain markup.

This technique relates to:



The beginning of a heading is indicated by

The end of a heading is indicated by


The programmatic identification of the Heading is the two blank lines preceding it and one blank line succeeding it. Text documents are necessarily void of underlying structure and so structure must be indicated in the programmatic layout for screen readers. This programmatic layout will enable screen readers to voice blank lines twice before the text that will be considered as a heading. A screen magnifier user would decipher headings by visually identifying the space before it (or their technology may have Screen reader capabilities that can identify the spaces).


Example 1


Example Code:

...this is the end of paragraph 1.

The Text of the Heading

This is the beginning of paragraph 2.


No resources available for this technique.

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For each heading in the content:

  1. Check that each heading is preceded by two blank lines

  2. Check that each heading is followed by a blank line

  3. Check that no heading contains any blank lines

Expected Results


Techniques are Informative
