Ensure lang Attributes Have Valid Values
The language specified in an HTML document must be one of the valid languages to ensure text is pronounced correctly by screen readers.
Why It Matters
When setting up a screen reader, users need to select a default language. If the language of a webpage is not specified, the screen reader assumes it is the default language set by the user. This can become a problem for users who speak multiple languages and access websites in more than one language.
Fixing the Issue
Ensure that the language code specified in the lang attribute is a valid language code (e.g. <html lang=”en”> would set the language of the document to English).
Make sure you identify a language in the opening <html> element and spell the attribute correctly.
Good Code Example
If you would like, you can even specify some dialects with codes such as “en-US” to signify American English or “fr-CA” for Canadian French. You can find a list of language and dialect codes on the internet.
If the language changes within a document, you can specify this as follows:
If you are using a language that is written right to left, be sure to specify this using the dir attribute:
If you would like to specify that a language is written left to right, you can fill the value of the dir attribute with the value “ltr”.
Ensure that the language code specified in the <html lang=” “> is a valid and allowed language code.
To identify the primary language of the document as English in the opening <html> element, designate it with the two-letter code “en”.
Test Cases
For more examples, visit the W3C’s GitHub’s ATC Rules library.