Techniques
Use the styles panel to specify the correct headings in your content
The currently applied heading style is indicated at the top and highlighted in the list; clicking on a different style will change the heading style of the selected text.
Check your heading structure at a glance
Use the document map in the “Navigation Pane” (“View” menu; tick “Navigation Page”) to see the structure of the headings in your document."
Word’s navigation pane, showing the heading structure
![The Word application with the navigation pane open, showing a heirarchical list of every heading and highlighting the currently selected heading.](https://universaldesign.ie/uploads/general/Specify-Headings-1.png)
Example of good practice
The screenshot below shows the layout of this page with headings specified. You can easily identify the different sections and sub-sections of the page at a glance.
![The content on this page with headers specified.](https://universaldesign.ie/uploads/general/Specify-Headings-2.png)
Example of bad practice
The screenshot below shows the layout of this page without any headings specified. It is difficult to identify the different sections and sub-sections of the page.
![.The content on this page without headers specified.](https://universaldesign.ie/uploads/general/Specify-Headings-3.png)
Videos
References
WCAG 2.1
- 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A)
EN 301 549 v 2.1.2
- 9.1.3.1 Info and Relationships