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Document is missing lang attribute

Compliance Data & User Impact

User Impact: Major

Disabilities Affected:

blindness
deafblindness

WCAG Version:
2

WCAG Levels:

WCAG Guidelines:

3.1.1

Solution Techniques:

H57.missingLang

Automated Test Accuracy:
High

uTester Severity:
2

DRRSAG Designations:

general

How to Fix the Problem

Identify the default language of a document by providing the lang and/or xml:lang attribute on the html element. In HTML documents use the lang attribute, while XHTML 1.0 allows both lang and xml:lang attributes, and XHTML 1.1 and above allows only xml:lang.

The Algorithm, in Simple Terms

Engine checks whether the document uses a lang or xml-lang attribute

Why Is it Important?

The objective of this technique is to identify the default language of a document by providing the lang and/or xml:lang attribute on the html element.
Identifying the language of the document is important for a number of reasons:
It allows braille translation software to adapt accordingly.
Speech synthesizers that support multiple languages will be able to speak the text in the appropriate accent with proper pronunciation.

Code Example

<blockquote xml:lang="en">

  <p>text

  </p>

</blockquote>