Multiple header, footer, and h1 Elements: What Is Actually Accessible?

Questions about how many header , footer , or h1 elements are allowed in a page are extremely common in web development, and they are often framed as strict accessibility rules. In reality, accessibility is less about counting elements and more about meaning, structure, and relationships . This article clarifies what is valid, what is accessible, and what actually matters when using header , footer , and h1 elements in a single document. The Core Principle: Semantics Over Superstition HTML is not a set of fragile rules that break accessibility when slightly bent. It is a semantic language designed to describe the structure of a document. The key question is not "how many of these elements am I allowed to use?", but rather "Do these elements accurately describe the structure of the content?". Multiple header Elements Is it allowed? Yes. You can have multiple header elements in a single document. A header represents introductory content for its nearest sectioning ancestor, such as: body