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a11y-examples

Shauna Keating

HCI 530 Advanced Accessibility

April 19, 2026

For a better experience, visit: https://shkeating.github.io/a11y-examples/page-regions/common-failures/

Common Failures

Ambiguous Identical Regions

Section titled “Ambiguous Identical Regions”

A frequent accessibility oversight occurs when developers deploy multiple identical landmarks without providing distinct names. In the scenario below, a screen reader user pulling up a landmark menu simply hears “navigation” followed by “navigation”. Without context, they are forced to guess which menu contains the specific links they are looking for.

<nav>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="/about">About</a></li>
    </ul>
</nav>


<main>
    <h1>Welcome</h1>
    <p>Page content here...</p>
</main>


<nav>
    <ul>
        <li><a href="/privacy">Privacy Policy</a></li>
        <li><a href="/terms">Terms</a></li>
    </ul>
</nav>

The Fix: Always apply an aria-label or aria-labelledby attribute when using more than one of the same landmark (e.g., aria-label="Main Navigation" and aria-label="Legal Links").

Fractured Heading Hierarchies

Section titled “Fractured Heading Hierarchies”

Headings do more than just make text big and bold; they generate a logical, sequential outline of your page’s content for assistive technologies. A common mistake is jumping heading ranks for visual styling purposes, such as dropping directly from an <h1> down to an <h4>. This fractures the semantic hierarchy and disorients users who navigate by headings to understand the page structure.

<main>
    <h1>SpaceTeddy Inc. Products</h1>


    <article>
        <h2>Cotton Fur Bears</h2>


        <h4>Washing Instructions</h4>
        <p>Hand wash only.</p>
    </article>
</main>

Note on Exceptions: The rule is against skipping levels downward. It is perfectly acceptable to skip ranks upward when closing subsections (e.g., jumping from an <h4> back up to an <h2> to start a brand new major section).

WCAG Considerations

Section titled “WCAG Considerations”