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Information Management Division - Web Standards
County Of Sonoma › Administrative Support & Fiscal Services › Information Systems › Divisions › Information Management › Web Services › Web Standards and Guidelines › Making content accessible › Verify and Correct the Reading Order
Information Management Division - Web Standards

Verify & Correct the Reading Order

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A screen reader cannot make intuitive decisions in what order to read content. The reading order is very literal.

Tags help determine the logical reading order and this is often very different than the way the document looks in the presentation layer.

Reading Order

Menu: Tools > Accessibility > Reading Order > Show Order Panel > Page content Order

Touch up Reading Order tool with Page content order selected

View and arrange the logical order of the content.

  • The accessibility statement is always # 1.
  • Then Title (H1) 
  • Other Content in logical order

The order can be arranged by moving (drag and drop) the item in the Order Panel or the Tags Panel

Panels

Structure Order

Menu: Tools > Accessibility > Reading Order > Show Order Panel > Structure types

Structural Type Order selector

  • The accessibility statement is always # 1. 
  • Then Title (H1) - per Document there is always only one H1
  • Paragraphs, H2, H3 and Tables in logical order

Note: The next important title after the first page is H2. There can be several H3 and subsequent titles.