• Success Criterion 3.1.1
  • Conformance level A

Page Published With No Language Declared in the Code

3.1.1 — Language of Page

Scenario

Setting

A music streaming app's playlist screen

What’s wrong

The playlist screen's HTML omits a lang attribute entirely, so assistive technology has no way to know the page's content is in English and can't pick the correct pronunciation rules.

Example 

<html>
<head><title>My Playlists</title></head>
<body>
  <h1>Liked Songs</h1>
  <ul><li>Song One - Artist A</li></ul>
</body>
</html>

Why it matters

Without a declared language, a screen reader falls back to its default voice, mispronouncing artist names and song titles a listener relies on to pick the right track.

How to test

Check View Source or DevTools for the html tag's lang attribute: if there's no way to determine the page's set language programmatically, it fails.

How to fix

Declare lang on every HTML document, not just localized ones; it's a single attribute with a platform-wide payoff.

<html lang="en">
<head><title>My Playlists</title></head>
<body>
  <h1>Liked Songs</h1>
  ...
</body>
</html>

Outcome

A listener picks the right playlist confidently, guided by voice output that sounds like natural English.

Who is affected

Screen reader and braille display users navigating playlists by ear need correct pronunciation to tell similarly named tracks apart.

Learn more

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