All WCAG criteria
WCAG 3.1.1 · UnderstandableLevel A

3.1.1Language of Page

The default human language of the page must be programmatically determinable via the `lang` attribute on `<html>`.

Common failures

Patterns that fail this criterion.

  • 01`<html>` with no `lang` attribute
  • 02`<html lang="">` (empty)
  • 03Wrong lang (e.g. `lang="en"` on a French page)
How to test

Testing approach: automated.

axe-core checks for the presence and validity of html lang.

axe-core rules

html-has-langhtml-lang-valid
How to fix

Remediation steps.

  1. 1

    Set <html lang>

    `<html lang="en">` for English, `lang="fr"` for French, etc. Use BCP 47 language tags.

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Related criteria

Often appears with…

WCAG 3.1.2 · Level AA

Language of Parts

All 50 WCAG 2.1 Level A + AA success criteria explained.

View the full checklist