Tag Order

The sequential order in which HTML elements appear in the source code of a web page, which determines the order in which screen readers and other assistive technologies present content to users. When web pages use CSS or layout tables to position content visually, the tag order may differ significantly from the visual order perceived by sighted users — for example, main content may appear after navigation and sidebar content in the source code even though it appears prominently on screen. Ensuring that tag order matches the intended reading order is a fundamental web accessibility requirement, as screen reader users have no way to perceive the visual layout that might make a different reading sequence intuitive.