Ensure That the Page, or At Least One of Its Frames Contains a Level-One Heading

A page, or at least one of its frames, should contain an H1 element that appears before the start of the main content. This allows screen reader users to use keyboard shortcuts to navigate the heading structure.

Why It Matters

Screen reader users can use keyboard shortcuts to navigate directly to the first H1, allowing them to jump directly to the main content of the web page. If no H1 is present or it appears somewhere other than at the start of the main content, screen reader users must listen to more of the web page to understand its contents.

Fixing the Issue

Developers should ensure that the page or at least one of its frames contains a level-one heading.

The H1 should appear at the beginning of a page’s main content and the page should only contain one H1 element.

The heading hierarchy of an iframe should be designed to fit within the heading hierarchy of the parent document. 

If you have control over the content of the embedded document in the iframe, the best practice is to fit the iframe heading hierarchy into the correct place within the existing heading hierarchy of the parent page. If the parent document is structured with a single H1 at the top of the content, the iframe should take this into account, and not start with another H1. The iframe document should only start with H2 if the content is a direct child of the first heading on the page.