When should you use Page declares its language?
language-of-pagefunctionalrequired
Without a declared language a screen reader reads the page in the listener’s own language and mispronounces every word; the page and any passage in another language must say which language they are in.
When should you use this check?
Run this on every page; it costs nothing and protects every screen-reader user. Without a declared language a screen reader reads English with a French voice or vice versa, and the page becomes gibberish. It is most valuable on localised sites, where a template copied between languages often keeps the wrong code.
When should you not?
It checks that a language is declared and is a valid code; it does not listen to the page and confirm the code matches the words. A Spanish page declaring lang="en" passes here and still reads badly.
What does it inspect?
a missing lang attribute on html; an invalid language code; passages marked with a non-existent language
What does a failure mean?
A failure names the element: the html element with no lang, a lang value that is not a real language code, or a passage marked with an invalid language. A screen reader will pronounce the affected text with the wrong voice.
What are the Standard defaults — and why?
There is no threshold. WCAG 3.1.1 requires the page's default language to be declared, and 3.1.2 requires declared changes of language to be valid.
How does an agent call it?
{ "type": "url", "validations": ["language-of-page"] }Who governs the Standard?
SchemaFirst.org publishes community-governed standards for digital QA. ArbiterQA is a supporter and commercial licensee of those standards; citation does not mean SchemaFirst operates ArbiterQA.
Author ArbiterQA · Reviewed by ArbiterQA · 2026-10-01
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