Headings tags versus Lists tags for structure

[_Crockett_]

Did I waste my time making tagging changes?

I received a legalese pdf document to make accessible. It was a Word file styled so that almost all paragraphs were headings. Headings 1 and 2 were usually short text and Headings 3 through 6 were typically a paragraph of a few long sentences. I converted the document to pdf and made a few changes (not related to headings) and the file passed both Acrobat's and the PAC 2 accessibility checkers.

Thinking about how a user might navigate through the document headings, I changed the Heading 3 through 6 tags into lists. My reasoning was that it would be easier when navigating headings to just listen to/navigate through the top level shorter text. This was tedious work and now I am not certain it was useful. The multi-nested lists may be harder to follow than if I left the paragraphs styled as headings. The file still passes both checkers.

[a_C_student · Accepted solution]

Headings should always be short, never a few sentences, so I do not think you wasted your time. Without seeing the document I can not offer an opinion of whether there was a better method than nested lists.

[_Crockett_]

Thank you. I wanted to provide a short clip of my file in case you had time to look at it, but haven't yet had time to clean out all the confidential language. I'm glad for the confirmation that it was probably not a time waste. It was demoralizing committing an extra two hours to a project only to wonder if it was for nothing.

[CtDave]

Good to remember -- a primary & fundamental "shall" for an accessible PDF (by definition that'd be a PDF/UA-1 compliant PDF) is that the appropriate PDF elements/tags be applied to the content. The lotsa-heading elements you've described would not pass this requirement.

Be well...