Format plain-text headings with standard conventions
In plain text a heading is marked by blank lines and nothing else. Two blank lines before it, one after it, and none inside it. W3C lists T3 as sufficient for 1.3.1 Info and Relationships in the available-in-text form, and the count is the technique. Two lines above is the thing a screen reader can act on, and a screen magnifier user sees the same gap on screen. A house style layered on top, capitals for top-level sections or a row of hyphens underneath, helps somebody skimming and is not what T3 tests, so apply it consistently and get the blank lines right first. T3 defines no levels at all, so a plain-text file gets headings and no hierarchy. Where you need levels, you need a format with markup.
How we find it in an audit
We check this in the plain-text files that travel with a site, transcripts and READMEs and text-only email. The count is the check. Two blank lines above a heading, one below, and nothing blank inside it. Then we look for headings styled exactly like body text, and for emphasis in capitals that mimics the heading convention and creates headings nobody meant to write.
How affected users experience it
There is no heading element to jump to in a text file, so a reader is working linearly or searching. The blank lines are what a screen reader can act on. Where the convention is applied consistently, a listener can skim by section. Where it is not, the only route to section five is to read sections one to four.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
Two blank lines, then INSTALLATION on its own line, then one blank line, then the paragraph. The same spacing on every top-level section.
Fails
Section titles sitting flush against the paragraphs above and below them, styled exactly like body text.
How this gets tested
The W3C publishes test rules that define what a checker looks for here.
- ARIA attribute is defined in WAI-ARIAA tool can check this
- ARIA state or property has valid valueA tool can check this
- Element with role attribute has required states and propertiesA tool can check this
- Form field has non-empty accessible nameA tool can check this
- Headers attribute specified on a cell refers to cells in the same table elementA tool can check this
- Role attribute has valid valueA tool can check this
- ARIA global properties not used where prohibitedA tool can check this
- ARIA required context roleA tool can check this
- ARIA required owned elementsA tool can check this
- ARIA state or property is permittedA tool can check this
- Table header cell has assigned cellsA tool can check this
Other ways to satisfy this rule
52 guides on this site are filed under 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule when used for making information and relationships conveyed through presentation programmatically determinable or available in text, so the condition is part of the test rather than a footnote to it.
- ARIA11sufficientAdd landmarks so users can skip around
- ARIA12sufficientUse role=heading when h1-h6 is impossible
- ARIA13sufficientName repeated landmarks so they are distinguishable
- ARIA16sufficientName controls from visible text with aria-labelledby
- ARIA17sufficientGroup related form fields with ARIA roles
- ARIA20sufficientMark leftover page areas with role=region
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique T3: Using standard text formatting conventions for headings. W3C publishes its techniques as guidance rather than as the standard, and says so on every one of them. The success criterion is what conformance is measured against, and a technique is one documented way to meet it.