Headings should not be empty

Screen reader users frequently navigate web pages by jumping between headings to get an overview of the content, much like sighted users visually scan a page. When a heading element is empty or its content is hidden from assistive technologies, the screen reader announces something like “heading level 2” with nothing after it. This is disorienting and can make users think content is missing or that the page is broken.

This rule is flagged as a Deque best practice and primarily affects users who are blind or deafblind and rely on screen readers, though it also impacts users with mobility impairments who use heading-based navigation. Well-structured, meaningful headings are foundational to an accessible page — they communicate the document’s outline and help all users find the information they need quickly.

A heading can be effectively “empty” in several ways:

• The element contains no text at all (<h2></h2>)
• The element contains only whitespace or non-text elements with no accessible name
• The text is hidden from assistive technologies using aria-hidden="true" or CSS like display: none

How to fix it

1. Add meaningful text to every heading element. Headings should be brief, clear, and descriptive of the section they introduce.
2. Remove heading tags from elements that aren’t actually headings. Don’t use <h1> through <h6> just for visual styling — use CSS instead.
3. Don’t hide heading text from screen readers using aria-hidden="true" or display: none. If a heading shouldn’t be visible on screen but is needed for accessibility, use a visually-hidden CSS technique instead.
4. Maintain a logical heading hierarchy. Headings should be ordered by level (<h1>, then <h2>, then <h3>, etc.) to accurately convey the structure of the page.

As a quick check, read through only the headings on your page. If they don’t give you a clear sense of the page’s content and structure, rewrite them.

Examples

Empty heading (incorrect)

<h2></h2>
<p>This section has no heading text.</p>

The <h2> is announced by a screen reader, but there’s no content to read.

Heading with only whitespace (incorrect)

<h3>   </h3>

Whitespace alone doesn’t provide an accessible name, so this is treated as empty.

Heading hidden from assistive technologies (incorrect)

<h2 aria-hidden="true">About Our Team</h2>

The aria-hidden="true" attribute hides the heading from screen readers entirely, even though sighted users can see it. This creates a gap in the page structure for assistive technology users.

Heading hidden with CSS (incorrect)

<h2 style="display: none;">Contact Us</h2>

Using display: none removes the heading from both the visual layout and the accessibility tree, making it inaccessible to everyone.

Heading with visible text (correct)

<h2>About Our Team</h2>
<p>We are a small company dedicated to accessible design.</p>

The heading clearly describes the section that follows.

Visually hidden heading for screen readers only (correct)

When a heading is needed for document structure but shouldn’t appear visually, use a visually-hidden class rather than display: none or aria-hidden:

<style>
  .visually-hidden {
    position: absolute;
    width: 1px;
    height: 1px;
    padding: 0;
    margin: -1px;
    overflow: hidden;
    clip: rect(0, 0, 0, 0);
    white-space: nowrap;
    border: 0;
  }
</style>

<h2 class="visually-hidden">Main Navigation</h2>
<nav>
  <a href="/home">Home</a>
  <a href="/about">About</a>
</nav>

This keeps the heading accessible to screen readers while hiding it visually.

Heading with an image that has alt text (correct)

<h1>
  <img src="logo.png" alt="Acme Corporation">
</h1>

The heading’s accessible name comes from the image’s alt attribute, so the heading is not considered empty.

Learn more:

Deque Reference

Deque University - How To Fix

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W3C Reference

WCAG 2.1 - Providing descriptive headings

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W3C Reference

WCAG 2.1 - Using role=heading to identify headings

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