WHY SECTION HEADINGS MATTER

Section headings serve several important purposes for learners interacting with content.

They alert learners to when a transition to a new topic has happened.
They help with scanning and browsing content, whether to get an initial idea of what the content will be or to locate specific pieces of information.
They help learners create a mental map of the content so that it can be more efficiently understood.
They mitigate cognitive overload and give learners a chance to refocus on the content.

Section headings are particularly impactful for users with cognitive disabilities, as well as users with a screen reader. While sighted users can scan content without a heading, users of screen readers often rely on properly structured section headings to navigate their way through content. A WebAIM study of screen reader users found that 76% always or often navigated by section headings when they were available.

Given the pedagogical value of section headings, it's often a good idea to use them frequently in your course content. They're particularly helpful to point out key information, such as Grading Criteria or Due Dates. Consider adding section headings to your Assignment prompts, Quiz instructions, Discussion Board prompts, and more.

CREATE ACCESSIBLE HEADINGS IN CANVAS

Making your Canvas headings accessible is easy! Just select the text you want to make a heading, select the "Paragraph" dropdown, then select the appropriate heading level (more on heading levels in the next section). This will automatically change the font size depending on the heading level you select.

The wrong way to apply a heading is to simply leave the content with "Paragraph" selected and change the font size in the dropdown. If you select your headings and see "Paragraph" still displayed at the top of the dropdown, your headings are not accessible. Just select them and change them in the dropdown. If you are copying and pasting content in from elsewhere, you'll usually have to go through and change the headings to be applied as headings in Canvas. This process is covered in more depth in our page about using the Canvas Rich Content Editor.

The Canvas Accessibility Checker will not check for headings set as paragraphs. It will only find skipped levels of headings or headings more than 120 characters in length. Make sure to manually check your headings in Canvas.

USE A HIERARCHY FOR HEADINGS

Accessible section headings should also be hierarchical. Canvas offers three levels of headings built in. Heading Level 1 is always the title of the Page, Quiz, Discussion, etc. This is why you won't see Heading Level 1 as an option in the dropdown.

Heading 2: Use for your main section headings.
Heading 3: Use for your sub-section headings within those main sections.
Heading 4: Use for any sub-sections within the sub-sections.

While Canvas automatically changes the size of your section headings based on the level you select, you can adjust that. For example, this course correctly uses Heading 2 for main section headings (like "Use a Hierarchy for Headings"), and it has the style of the Heading 2 changed to make them more visually prominent. Just don't confuse your hierarchy, such as by making your Heading 4's huge while your Heading 2's are small.

WRITE CONCISE, DESCRIPTIVE HEADINGS

Since section headings serve to structure your document, they should be concise and descriptive. When you look at the entirety of a page, ask yourself if a user could get an outline of all the content only by reading the section headings. If so, it's likely your section headings are well written.

One framework for writing section headings, which you will see throughout this course, is:

Question: These headings pose a question the reader may be asking. The content within these should answer that question.
Statement: These headings make a statement, often declarative, such as this section's heading. The content within these should be directly related to what the heading states.
Topic: These headings provide a broad overview of the topic that will be covered in them, such as "French Impressionism and German Expressionism in Film."

One way to test your section headings is to read them out loud, as that will help you hear them as a screen reader user would.

Quick Recap

Use the Canvas Rich Content Editor to structure headings, including a heading hierarchy.

Further Reading