- Success Criterion 2.4.6
- Conformance level AA
Heading That Actually Describes the Section Before It
2.4.6 — Headings and Labels
Scenario
Setting
A calendar app's event-creation form
What’s wrong
Headings describing the previous section due to placement errors.
Example
<label for="q1">Question 1</label>Why it matters
Everyone, especially screen-reader users and people who skim headings/labels for orientation.
How to test
Compare each heading to the content that actually follows it: if a heading describes the previous section due to a placement error, it fails.
How to fix
The heading or label must describe its section's topic or the control's purpose, distinguishably from its siblings.
<label for="q1">What is your monthly household income?</label>Labels and headings need to describe their actual topic or purpose, not just their position in a sequence.
Outcome
On a calendar app's event-creation form, this barrier is gone for everyone — they get the same result as anyone else here.
Who is affected
Everyone, especially screen-reader users and people who skim headings/labels for orientation.
Learn more
- Understanding Understanding document (opens in a new tab)
Related scenarios
- Heading or Label That Fails to Describe Its Own Purpose
- Generic Section Heading Like ‘Introduction’ That Says Nothing
- Identical Headings Repeated Over Completely Different Content
- Form Label Like ‘Field 1’ That Doesn’t Describe Its Purpose
- Same Label Used for Two Different Fields on One Form
- Clever Marketing Heading That Hides What a Section Actually Does