ACT Rule ffd0e9 · proposed
Heading has non-empty accessible name
An empty heading breaks the flow for anybody navigating by headings, and it is usually there to make a gap. This rule checks that every heading has a name.
A tool can decide this one on its own, which is why it turns up in scanner output. The rule is proposed, so it has not yet been implemented in full by a tool and reviewed by a W3C working group, and the wording can still change.
Why passing this rule settles nothing about WCAG
W3C's requirements mapping for this rule names no WCAG success criterion as a conformance requirement. That is the position of 24 of the 87 live rules and this is one of them, which is why a scanner can flag it while an auditor leaves it out of the findings. Both of them are reading the same page correctly.
The rule answers to WAI-ARIA rather than to WCAG. Its outcome mapping says a pass leaves even the ARIA requirement needing further testing. So it clears nothing at either end. W3C notes that assistive technology often hides empty headings from the user, while the space they leave stays visible on screen.
The ARIA requirement this rule answers to
This rule maps to ARIA 1.2, section 5.2.8 Accessible Name Calculation. WAI-ARIA is a separate specification with its own author requirements, so a result here is measured against ARIA rather than against WCAG. A law that names WCAG does not name this.
The normative rule text lives at W3C
What the rule applies to, and exactly what it expects, is published by W3C and can change. We link to it rather than restate it, so nothing here can quietly fall out of date against the source. Read rule ffd0e9 at W3C.
Every control needs a name that assistive technology can read
Every control has a name that assistive technology reads out. It is not always the text you see. The browser works it out in a fixed order. An aria-labelledby reference wins first, then aria-label, then the element's own content or its associated label, then a title attribute as a last resort.
A screen reader user moving through a page by control hears these names and nothing else. If the name is empty, they hear only the role. A button with no name is a button with no idea what it does.
Icon-only buttons are the common case. The icon carries the meaning visually and leaves nothing behind for the name. The control announces as just a button with no function described.
All 87 ACT rules are grouped by the criteria they test, and 24 of them decide nothing about WCAG on their own. Run a free scan to see which of these your own pages trip.