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ACT 2.4.6 atomic rule Update #2425

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84f4a8b
Update WCAG 2.4.6 atomic rule draft
grifare Jun 29, 2026
1d6fe02
Clarify heading relevance rule description and applicability
grifare Jun 29, 2026
d2ad7da
Update acknowledgments and refine rule scope
grifare Jun 29, 2026
816bc57
Refine heading relevance rule description and context
grifare Jun 29, 2026
4974e86
Refine heading rule by removing duplicates and clarifying scope
grifare Jun 29, 2026
edcaf8a
Revise heading examples and add new passed cases
grifare Jun 29, 2026
4d002c0
Fix link formatting for section headings resource
grifare Jun 29, 2026
bca3157
Refine heading examples in descriptive rules
grifare Jun 29, 2026
94c8e82
Major update
grifare Jun 30, 2026
640c92b
Examples added until Passed (Situation E)
grifare Jun 30, 2026
28e978d
Ends at Failed example 9
grifare Jun 30, 2026
5a978e0
Until Failed Example 12
grifare Jun 30, 2026
227b7d5
ends at #### Failed Example 12
grifare Jun 30, 2026
ed200e1
Minor edits in Background
grifare Jun 30, 2026
c12e930
Minor language edits and reorganised sections
grifare Jul 1, 2026
c2637a5
Changes in the "None of the following is within this rule's scope" se…
grifare Jul 1, 2026
eee1e6b
Changes in "Expectations"
grifare Jul 1, 2026
0bb437d
Delete mistakenly pasted portion from the old file
grifare Jul 1, 2026
57e2265
Changes in the "Background" section
grifare Jul 1, 2026
d97d76d
Merge branch 'develop' into grifare-patch-1
grifare Jul 1, 2026
460da79
Entire act rule content drafted
grifare Jul 9, 2026
ed0ff54
Fix typos
grifare Jul 9, 2026
384c3bc
Fix formatting issues in heading examples
grifare Jul 9, 2026
f63baf3
Self-reviewing starts
grifare Jul 10, 2026
44fc44d
Update rules for empty heading elements
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The work will be divided into 2 separate parts, this section is the f…
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Update _rules/heading-descriptive-b49b2e.md
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Changes made based on feedback, more changes to come
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202 changes: 19 additions & 183 deletions _rules/heading-descriptive-b49b2e.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
---
id: b49b2e
name: Heading is descriptive
name: Heading is relevant
rules_format: 1.1
rule_type: atomic
description: |
This rule checks that headings describe the topic or purpose of the content.
description:
This rule checks that headings are relevant to a specific topic, purpose or page.
accessibility_requirements:
wcag20:2.4.6: # Headings and labels (AA)
forConformance: true
Expand All @@ -13,11 +13,11 @@ accessibility_requirements:
inapplicable: further testing needed
input_aspects:
- Accessibility Tree
- DOM Tree
- CSS Styling
- Language
acknowledgments:
authors:
- Armağan Tekdöner
- Carlos Duarte
- Dagfinn Rømen
- Geir Sindre Fossøy
Expand All @@ -28,202 +28,38 @@ acknowledgments:

## Applicability

This rule applies to any [semantic][semantic role] `heading` element that is [included in the accessibility tree][] and has a non-empty (`””`) [accessible name][].
This rule applies to any [semantic](semantic-role "Definition of semantic role") `heading` element that is [included in the accessibility tree](included-in-the-accessibility-tree "Definition of included in the accessibility tree") and has a non-empty `""` [accessible name](accessible-name "Definition of accessible name"). It also applies to other elements that are not semantically `heading` elements, but that are presented as headings.

## Expectation
### Applicability Type Designation

Each target element describes the topic or purpose of the first [perceivable content][] after the test target that is not [decorative][]. The order of elements is determined by the [flat tree][].
Rule contains subjective applicability, depending on whether the target element should be considered a heading.

**Note:** Headings do not need to be lengthy. A word, or even a single character, may be sufficient.
## Expectations
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Each heading is relevant to the specific page or section where it appears and it is sufficiently intelligible.

@WilcoFiers WilcoFiers Aug 7, 2026

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This seems fairly ambiguous. Here are the questions I had about it:

  1. What does it mean for a heading to be relevant to a section?
  2. If the heading is relevant to the page, does it not need to be relevant to any section?
  3. What are sections?
  4. How do I know which heading goes with which section?
  5. Can a heading belong to multiple sections?
  6. What does it mean for a heading to be intelligible?
  7. How do I know if a heading is sufficiently intelligible?

Having read through understanding docs, and some other people's writing about 2.4.6 I no longer think we should change "descriptive" to "relevant". If a heading is irrelevant to the section its in, than I think its either in the wrong section, or it shouldn't be a heading at all. Either one is a failures of 1.3.1. Where 2.4.6 comes in is when headings are relevant, but insufficiently descriptive. On a recipe page using "Recipe 1" instead of "Vegetarian lasagna" for example is a heading not being relevant.

I'd recommend doing a few things with this expectation:

  1. Create a new definition for "section". Something like "A visually distinct region of the page" Sections are separated through visual clues, including changes in background, borders, dividing lines or images, a change in width, a change in column numbers, or a starting heading. Sections may contain sub-sections.
  2. Create a section heading definition, that builds on the section definition. Something like: A section heading is the first semantic heading of the section.
  3. I think we'll want an inline definition of "descriptive". So after this first sentence of the expectation, you could say something like: "A heading is descriptive when ..."
  4. I don't think intelligible is needed here. Make that part of the inline definition of descriptive.

@grifare grifare Aug 7, 2026

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Descriptive versus relevant

Replacing "descriptive" with "relevant" was my proposal right from the start and we began working on this assignment after you accepted it. I also proposed "meaningful" but then we removed it upon your request, as you were right in the sense that anything could be considered meaningful by itself.

But I still think the devil is in the word "descriptive". A tester can fail anything using that. Here is what reports will be reading: "this is not descriptive enough because, that is not descriptive enough because". To avoid that, the "first perceivable content" term was introduced, but then the rule became an artificial requirement of writing 2 sentences that repeat each other.
Replacing any proposal not existing before with the existing text may be not be a very meaningful study.

On a recipe page using "Recipe 1" instead of "Vegetarian lasagna" for example is a heading not being relevant.

I assume you provided the example above as a "PASS" example, right?

That is why I created situations in examples. (I will remove all situations to use the existing format, no doubt about it. I am pasting it here for now just to make my point.)

Passed (Situation B)

Headings that serve as structural or sequential identifiers, which are inherently compliant regardless of the specific content that follows.

Passed Example 4

This h1 element provides a sequential identifier for a major document section. The content that follows makes no difference to the outcome of this test.

<h1>Chapter 4</h1>

I also had a section like this, which was not using the format. However, I think it is helpful section and it could be used elsewhere, as you would suggest.

### None of the following is within this rule's scope:
- The sequential order of heading levels, such as evaluating whether a heading skips levels in the hierarchy (e.g., moving from an `h2` directly to an `h5`)
- Coding or parsing errors in headings (assuming that the heading is visible or exposed to assistive technologies), such as mismatched tags like `<h2>Meaningful and relevant heading</h3>` which browsers automatically correct in the DOM
- Factual accuracy of headings, such as the verification of historical dates, including names, locations, technical facts
- Technical mistakes related to numeration or ordering in headings, such as skipped numbers, sequencing or arithmetical mistakes, chronological validity, incorrect ordering of section headers
- Objective truth in headings, such as editorial biases, opinions, or controversial theories
- Grammar or spelling errors in headings (unless they render the text entirely unintelligible), such as common typos or minor translation mistakes like "Command your food" instead of "Order your food"
- Headings of highly specialized or technical domains consisting of advanced scientific, technical, or academic material, where evaluating the relevance of the terminology requires domain-specific expertise
- Headings of abstract or creative content consisting of literary works, poetry, or avant-garde text where relevance is interpretive or non-linear rather than purely informational
- Headings of legally mandated or standardized statements, documents, or user interfaces where their heading text and structure are rigidly dictated by statutory, regulatory, or legal mandates (e.g., standardized privacy disclosures) that should not be altered by the author
- Compliance with other WCAG success criteria applicable to headings that are evaluated independently

##Comments about recommendations

Item 1, "Create a new definition for 'section'"

Very good idea, but it will take time if I am to do this, as it may become a back-and-forth discussion topic. I am eager to copy-paste whatever you would suggest for this (or directly commit here).

Item 2, "Create a section heading definition"

Not sure if it is needed. It will be very much ambiguous no matter what you describe, especially when the description of the heading is not clear yet.

Item 3, "we'll want an inline definition of 'descriptive'"

Respectfully I disagree. That is going back to square one. The vast majority of the existing headings of the most prominent institutions all around the world will suddenly become non-complaint with WCAG. All that I listed under the "None of the following is within this rule's scope" above will be failed by testers.

Item 4, "intelligible"

I am also not 100% sure about it.
If you think these hypothetical situations I wrote are not encountered in the real world, just tell me to remove it, I will remove all examples that include such cases as well.

Headings containing errors due to copy-pasting, forgotten placeholder text along with the actual heading, or left-over markup code that should not be visible. These headings are considered failing if the text no longer remains meaningful and relevant, introducing a risk for user misunderstanding

Failed Example

This h3 element contains fragmented, truncated text resulting from a catastrophic copy-paste error. It fails this rule because the remaining text fragment fails to convey any meaningful topic, leaving it entirely irrelevant to the underlying content.

<h3>ortcontact Custo</h3>


## Background

Headings that are visible but not in the accessibility tree are a failure of [Success Criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships][sc131]. These are not tested by this rule but they can still fail [Success Criterion 2.4.6 Headings and Labels][sc246].
Headings are normally marked as semantic headings using `<h1>` to `<h6>` elements or using generic elements with correct ARIA roles that convert them into semantic headings. On the other hand, on websites that are not adhering to HTML5 semantic coding practices, or that are intended to apply semantics in the code while containing errors in the usage of ARIA roles for example, other elements can be observed that function as headings. Sometimes a heading is a list item, sometimes a figcaption, sometimes a table caption, sometimes another element that is not normally a heading.

Under this rule, "content" refers to any textual or non-textual element presented on the web page, including sections, paragraphs, forms, user interface components, media galleries, lists, or hyperlinks.

Testing tools treat empty headings `<h1></h1>` or `div role="heading" aria-level="1"></div>` differently. Some report that empty headings fail under 1.3.1 Info and Relationships or 2.4.6 Labels or Instructions. Other tools report that these headings pass because they are ignored by most assistive technologies and cause no accessibility barriers at all. This rule does not include examples of empty headings because there is currently no harmonized approach for testing them.
To pass, a heading must be relevant to its associated content. (Headings consisting of placeholder text or uninformative character strings fail this rule inherently.)

### Assumptions

This rule assumes that the [flat tree][] order is close to the reading order as elements are rendered on the page. Due to positioning, it is possible to render a document in an order that greatly differs from the tree order, in which case the content which is visually associated with a heading might not be the content following it in tree order and this rule might fail while [Success Criterion 2.4.6 Headings and Labels][sc246] is still satisfied.
The limitations for the evaluation are live, dynamic content fields (e.g., streaming data feeds, live social walls, or active chat interfaces) where the content updates at a rate that prevents static evaluation against its structural headings or content that is highly specialized, academic, or artistic are exceptions when the evaluator does not possess the necessary know-how to determine whether the heading is relevant.

This rule also assumes that the content the heading is intended to describe is [visible][] and not hidden from assistive technologies. Otherwise, cases such as expandable content using a heading might fail this rule while [Success Criterion 2.4.6 Headings and Labels][sc246] is still satisfied.
This rule is designed as a test-to-pass evaluation and failures should be reserved for obviously non-compliant cases. Testers should default to a passing or not applicable result when in doubt.

### Accessibility Support

Implementation of [Presentational Roles Conflict Resolution][] varies from one browser or assistive technology to another. Depending on this, some [semantic][semantic role] `heading` elements can fail this rule with some technology but users of other technologies would not experience any accessibility issue.
There are no accessibility support issues known.

### Other Resources

- [Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/info-and-relationships.html)
- [Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.6: Headings and Labels](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/headings-and-labels.html)
- [G130: Providing descriptive headings](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Techniques/general/G130)
- [H42: Using h1-h6 to identify headings](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Techniques/html/H42)
- [ARIA12: Using role=heading to identify headings](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Techniques/aria/ARIA12)
- [Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.10 Section Headings](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/section-headings)
- [Use headings to convey meaning and structure](https://www.w3.org/WAI/tips/writing/#use-headings-to-convey-meaning-and-structure)
- [HTML Specification - Heading content](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#heading-content)

## Examples

@WilcoFiers WilcoFiers Aug 7, 2026

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I don't know why you deleted the examples. We'll need those.

@grifare grifare Aug 7, 2026 •
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I have all the examples locally saved as an md file.
I temporarily removed them from GitHub in order to:

  • Make required format changes to comply with the official format, such as removing the HTML comments I used and including the case in the description
  • Add or remove examples depending on how this section proceeds, what feedback you will provide
  • To repost all examples as one commit, once this intro section is fixed

I am now waiting for your approval of the format I should use for examples. Will the examples' format be okay like this? (No situations list whatsoever.)
#2425 (comment)


### Passed

#### Passed Example 1

This `h1` heading element describes the topic of the following paragraph.

```html
<html lang="en">
<h1>Opening Hours</h1>
<p>We are open Monday through Friday from 10 to 16</p>
</html>
```

#### Passed Example 2

This heading marked up with an [explicit role][] of `heading` describes the topic of the following paragraph.

```html
<html lang="en">
<span role="heading" aria-level="1">Opening Hours</span>
<p>We are open Monday through Friday from 10 to 16</p>
</html>
```

#### Passed Example 3

This `h1` heading element with an image describes the topic of the following paragraph.

```html
<html lang="en">
<h1>
<img src="/test-assets/descriptive-heading-b49b2e/opening_hours_icon.png" alt="Opening hours" />
</h1>
<p>We are open Monday through Friday from 10 to 16</p>
</html>
```

#### Passed Example 4

This `h1` heading element has a single character text that describes the topic of the following description list.

```html
<html lang="en">
<h1>A</h1>
<dl>
<dt>airplane</dt>
<dd>
a powered flying vehicle with fixed wings and a weight greater than that of the air it displaces.
</dd>
<dt>apple</dt>
<dd>
the round fruit of a tree of the rose family, which typically has thin green or red skin and crisp flesh.
</dd>
</dl>
</html>
```

#### Passed Example 5

This heading marked up with an [explicit role][] of `heading` describes the topic of the following paragraph. The heading is positioned off screen but is [included in the accessibility tree][].

```html
<html lang="en">
<span role="heading" aria-level="1" style="position: absolute; top: -9999px; left: -9999px;">Opening Hours</span>
<p>
We are open Monday through Friday from 10 to 16
</p>
</html>
```

#### Passed Example 6

This heading describes the first [perceivable content][] after it (the first `p` element). The next [perceivable content][] (the second `p` element) is not considered by this rule.

```html
<html lang="en">
<h1>Opening Hours</h1>
<p>We are open Monday through Friday from 10 to 16</p>
<p>We are open Saturday from 10 to 13</p>
</html>
```

### Failed

#### Failed Example 1

This `h1` heading element does not describes the topic of the following paragraph.

```html
<html lang="en">
<h1>Weather</h1>
<p>We are open Monday through Friday from 10 to 16</p>
</html>
```

#### Failed Example 2

This heading marked up with an [explicit role][] of `heading` does not describe the topic of the following paragraph.

```html
<html lang="en">
<span role="heading" aria-level="1">Weather</span>
<p>We are open Monday through Friday from 10 to 16</p>
</html>
```

#### Failed Example 3

This heading marked up with an [explicit role][] of `heading` does not describe the topic of the following paragraph. The heading is positioned off screen but is [included in the accessibility tree][].

```html
<html lang="en">
<span role="heading" aria-level="1" style="position: absolute; top: -9999px; left: -9999px;">Weather</span>
<p>
We are open Monday through Friday from 10 to 16
</p>
</html>
```

#### Failed Example 4

This `h1` heading element does not describe the first [perceivable content][] after it (the first `p` element). The next [perceivable content][] (the second `p` element) is not considered by this rule.

```html
<html lang="en">
<h1>Weather</h1>
<p>We are open Monday through Friday from 10 to 16</p>
<p>It is going to rain tomorrow</p>
</html>
```

### Inapplicable

#### Inapplicable Example 1

There is no heading.

```html
<html lang="en">
<p>We are open Monday through Friday from 10 to 16</p>
</html>
```

#### Inapplicable Example 2

This `h1` heading element is not [included in the accessibility tree][].

```html
<html lang="en">
<h1 hidden>Opening Hours</h1>
<p>We are open Monday through Friday from 10 to 16</p>
</html>
```

[decorative]: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/#dfn-pure-decoration 'WCAG definition of Pure decoration'
[flat tree]: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-scoping/#flat-tree 'Definition of flat tree'
[included in the accessibility tree]: #included-in-the-accessibility-tree 'Definition of included in the accessibility tree'
[presentational roles conflict resolution]: https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.2/#conflict_resolution_presentation_none 'Presentational Roles Conflict Resolution'
[sc131]: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/#info-and-relationships ' Success Criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships'
[sc246]: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/#headings-and-labels 'Success Criterion 2.4.6 Headings and Labels'
[semantic role]: #semantic-role 'Definition of semantic role'
[visible]: #visible 'Definition of visible'
[accessible name]: #accessible-name 'Definition of accessible name'
[perceivable content]: #perceivable-content 'Definition of perceivable content'