WCAG 2.4.6: Headings and Labels

In WCAG 2.4.2 and 2.4.4, we discussed why it’s important to provide web page titles and text for links that describe the page’s or link’s respective topic or purpose. In a nutshell, website navigation is often based around visual context clues, which puts those who rely on assistive technologies to navigate your site at a disadvantage.

For this reason, the headings and labels included on your site should describe the nature of their corresponding content as well.

Description in Action

Here’s a pretty straightforward example. Let’s take a look at the New York Times’ landing page.

[Link: https://www.nytimes.com/]

Each top story featured on the homepage includes a headline and lede, which together provide a brief overview of what the article is about. In addition, clicking on either the headline or lede will bring you to the featured article.

A Couple More Things to Note

The Times’ landing page provides a relatively extensive description for each article. This is a convention of news sites more than anything. Descriptive headings and labels need not be lengthy. They can be a single word or even a single character in length, as long as they adequately describe the content in question.

Moreover, it’s worth noting that this rule does not require you to provide headings and labels on your site. Rather, if you happen to have headings and labels, just make sure that they are sufficiently descriptive.