Level AA · WCAG 2.0
3.1.2 Language of Parts
Passages in a different language declare that language.
Partly automated Some failures are detectable, others need judgement.
How it fails in practice
An English product name or a quoted French sentence inside German copy, read out with German pronunciation rules.
How to fix it
Wrap the passage and set lang on it. Proper nouns and terms that have entered the language do not need it.
At a glance
- Level
- Level AA — the level EN 301 549 requires, and therefore the level the BFSG and the EAA are measured against.
- Principle
- Understandable
- Guideline
- 3.1 Readable
- Added in
- WCAG 2.0
- EN 301 549
- 9.3.1.2
- Automated check
- Partly automated
Partly automated
How far an automated check gets
A tool finds some failures here and cannot see the rest. A clean automated result means the checks that exist found nothing — not that the criterion is met. This is the gap that makes a green scan look like an accessible site, and it is where the keyboard agent, the agents still in development and a human reviewer do the remaining work.
Rules that check this criterion
valid-langInvalid lang value on content
The rule ids are axe-core’s (version 4.14.0), the open-source engine our scan runs, and our keyboard agent’s — the names a report or a CI log will show. An underlined id has a page of its own here.
Related criteria
Other criteria under the same guideline.
Further reading
-
Language attribute
The lang attribute declares the language of a page or passage so screen readers pronounce it correctly (WCAG 3.1.1, 3.1.2).
-
valid-lang
The axe rule valid-lang flags a lang attribute inside the page that is no valid language tag, e.g. fr_FR. How to fix it, with code example.
Find out which criteria your site fails
We scan up to 100 pages against WCAG 2.2 AA, send the keyboard agent through the page you name and email you the report — free, once, no strings.