Fix · Moderate · should fix soon
How to fix: missing lang attribute on <html>
Screen readers read content with the wrong language phonetics. Tells AT and translation tools what language to use.
- WCAG references
- 3.1.1
- Severity
- Moderate
What it looks like in the wild
Screen readers read content with the wrong language phonetics.
The screen-reader user, keyboard user, or low-vision user encountering this issue does not get an error message. The page just stops working for them. Which is why this kind of bug rarely shows up in your error tracker; it shows up in support tickets, lawsuits, and abandoned conversions.
Why it fails WCAG
Tells AT and translation tools what language to use.
Map this back to 3.1.1 when you log the bug. Auditors and procurement teams expect that mapping; "broken" is not enough context.
The wrong pattern (avoid)
<html><head>...The right pattern (copy this)
<html lang="en">
<!-- For inline language: -->
<p>Hello. <span lang="fr">Bonjour.</span></p>Notes from real audits
Set in your root layout / template, not per page.
Related fixes
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