"is it an improvement to accessibility or just a confluence by design or miss-fortune of one feature within one popular screenreading product and the semantics of a single website." In the spirit of discussion I would argue clearly not, as more than one screen reader navigates by headings for the rather more academically erudite and upright purpose that the WAI WCAG may aprove of. Rigorous self contained interpretation of guidelines is one thing, and real life is another, and there is a danger in thinking that committees that make up WAI WCAG guidelines can do everything. There is, if you want to think of things that rigorously no such thing as technology independant accessibility, it is in fact a web of interconnected technologies and standards. Even assuming such bodies can think of or decide upon some other kind of structural mark up that would have this effect, a screen reader or for that matter another type of accessibility aid would still have to be coded for this if the guidelines are to remain as such rather than a top down literal standard that all websites should follow. Regards. Tristram Llewellyn Sight and Sound Technology Technical Support www.sightandsound.co.uk