Who this affects
The page does not declare a language. Screen readers fall back to the user's system language and mispronounce the entire page.
How to fix it
Add lang to the <html> element, e.g. <html lang="nl">.
Effort Low · ~2 min
Before and after
Fails
<html>Passes
<html lang="en-GB">Where this sits in the standard
| WCAG success criterion | Level | EN 301 549 clause |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1.1 Language of Page | A | 301-549, 9.3.1.1 |
EN 301 549 clause 9 applies these criteria to web content. The published version referenced by the European Accessibility Act is V3.2.1, which incorporates WCAG 2.1 level A and AA. More on the standard.
How to check it by hand
View source and check the lang attribute on <html>. Then look for passages in another language — a quotation, a product name, a testimonial — and confirm they carry their own lang attribute.
Automated testing settles roughly a third of the WCAG success criteria. This rule is one an automated tool detects reliably — but a clean automated result is not proof of conformance.
Reference
Deque's technical write-up for this rule: html-has-lang
See whether your site trips this rule
Paste a URL. We open it in a real browser, dismiss the cookie wall and run the full EN 301 549 rule set. No account, no card.