The Code

This user script runs on Google web search result pages. It uses hardcoded knowledge of Google's markup—each search result is wrapped in a <p class="g"> element—to wrap a real <h2> tag around the title of each result. It also adds an <h1>Search Results</h1> element at the top of the page. This <h1> is hidden from sighted users, but screen readers will still "see" it in the DOM and announce it to blind users.

Save the following user script as googleheaders.user.js:

	// ==UserScript==
	// @name		Google Headings
	// @namespace   http://zeus.jesus.cam.ac.uk/~jg307/mozilla/userscripts/
	// @description Add real heading elements to google search results
	// @include		http://google.tld/search*
	// @include		http://www.google.tld/search*
	// ==/UserScript==

	// based on code by James Graham
	// and included here with his gracious permission

	var mainHeading = document.createElement('h1');
	var headingText = document.createTextNode('Search Results');
	mainHeading.appendChild(headingText);
	mainHeading.style.visibility="Hidden";
	mainHeading.style.height="0";
	mainHeading.style.width="0";
	var body = document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];
	body.insertBefore(mainHeading, body.firstChild);
	var resultsParagraphs = document.evaluate("//p[@class='g']",
		document, null, XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null);
	if (resultsParagraphs.snapshotLength) {
		var heading = resultsParagraphs.snapshotItem(0);
		var headingSize = document.defaultView.getComputedStyle(
			heading, '').getPropertyValue("font-size");
		var headingWeight = document.defaultView.getComputedStyle(
			heading, '').getPropertyValue("font-weight");
	}
	for (var i = 0; i < resultsParagraphs.snapshotLength; i++) {
		var paragraphNode = resultsParagraphs.snapshotItem(i);
		var linkNode = paragraphNode.getElementsByTagName('a')[0];
		var heading = document.createElement('h2');
		heading.appendChild(linkNode.cloneNode(true));
		heading.style.fontSize = headingSize;
		heading.style.fontWeight = headingWeight;
		heading.style.marginBottom = 0;
		heading.style.marginTop = 0;

		paragraphNode.replaceChild(heading, linkNode);
		try {
			paragraphNode.removeChild(
				paragraphNode.getElementsByTagName('br')[0]);
		}
		catch(error) {
		}
	}