Tagging Headers, Footers, and Page Numbers
Instructions
Section 5.16: Tagging Headers, Footers, and Page Numbers
Headers and footers help organize content by consistently displaying key information. They can include:
Document title
Chapter or section name
Page numbers (e.g., "Page 3 of 12")
Author
Date
Document version
You can add headers and footers in an authoring tool, but when converted to a PDF, they won’t be tagged for screen readers unless you manually tag them.
Since there’s no specific tag for headers or footers, they should be marked as either Paragraphs or Artifacts, depending on their importance:
Artifacts: Use for repetitive content users don’t need to hear, like a company name on every page. You can tag the first instance as a Paragraph and mark the rest as Artifacts to avoid redundancy.
Paragraphs: Use for important content like page numbers, so users can track their location in the document.
If a title page already contains all header and footer information, you can tag headers and footers on other pages as Artifacts to reduce repetition.
In short, tag important information as Paragraphs, and tag meaningless information as Artifacts.