layout - clear relationships

[KevinP-NZ]

One of the outcomes here should be that relationships conveyed semantically but not visually (the inverse of the 1.3.1 failures) are also called out. This isn't the same as semantic relationships that aren't correct: but where the visual represenation is wrong. typically this would be the visual treatment of headings giving a lower ranked heading greater visual prominence than a higher one whilst the semantic structure met the logical structure perfectly.

#marked up as heading1# A small heading but actually the correct H1 for the page.
#marked up as heading 2#BOLD ALL CAPS AND TWICE THE SIZE

[KevinP-NZ]

Just a thought - thatis one of thoise misleading patterns discussed elsewhere potentially.

[detlevhfischer]

typically this would be the visual treatment of headings giving a lower ranked heading greater visual prominence than a higher one

I believe there are cases where this makes perfect sense (say, a generic umbrella heading on h1, followed by several h2 headings & content that are substantively more important and interesting than the main heading and thus deserve this emphasis). So I would warn against setting down prescriptive rules like "h1 must be bigger than headings lower down the hierarchy".

[patrickhlauke]

agree fully with @detlevhfischer here. it's a fine line here between suggesting that hierarchy/relationship needs to be visually clear (like an inverse 1.3.1), and attempting to define some sort of universal layout/design rules to follow (because that would be both impossible, and because frankly this group is not qualified enough to do this - we're not designers here, so it would be rich for us to pretend otherwise)

[KevinP-NZ]

@detlevhfischer @patrickhlauke Sorry - that was a terrible example and I don't intend that we should prescribe the size of headings but I have worked on examples where the visual presentation did not reflect the heirarchy at all and, for example, gave more prominence to an H4. The alternative is perhaps that the 1.3.1 concept of a simple heirarchy of h1, H2, h3 , H2, H3 H4 etc should be replaced with a concept of the programmatic should match the visual effect. I don't think that's what we are looking for either and there's a middle way. The visual treatment of headings and relationships matters as much to those with low vision/cognitive issues as the programmatic does to AT.