SC 3.1.2 Language of Parts
Programmatically identify the language of any content that differs from the page’s default language.
- Purpose: Ensures assistive technologies (like screen readers) correctly pronounce text, phrases, or passages that are in a different language than the rest of the page.
- Exceptions: Proper names, technical terms, words of indeterminate language, and words/phrases that have become part of the vernacular (e.g., “rendezvous”).
- Implementation: Use specific language markup (e.g.,
langattribute in HTML, language/culture properties in accessibility APIs, or tagging features in documents/PDFs) for the specific element or passage containing the secondary language.
3.1.2 Language of Parts: The human language of each passage or phrase in the content can be programmatically determined except for proper names, technical terms, words of indeterminate language, and words or phrases that have become part of the vernacular of the immediately surrounding text.
SC 3.1.2 Language of Parts supports the Understandable principle and requires that Web pages provide code to specify the human language for content that differs from the default human language of the page. There are exceptions listed in SC 3.1.2, such as proper names, technical terms, and assimilated words or phrases that have become part of common vernacular.
If a website has content in a language different from its main language (e.g., a Web page default is English and is programmatically set as English, but there is a paragraph or section written in Spanish), the speech of the screen reader could be incomprehensible. Failure to meet this SC will affect people without vision, without hearing, with limited hearing, and with limited language, cognitive and learning abilities.
Proper names, such as “Jerry Tobago” or “Indigo Solomon,” do not require a different language attribute even though some proper names may best be pronounced with certain language-specific rules. Additionally, “Homo habilis,” “hertz,” and “force majeure” are examples of technical terms that are exempt from this SC. When words from one language have become part of everyday speech in another language, they do not need to be identified with different language attributes either (e.g., “rendezvous” and “hors d’oeuvres” do not require a different language attribute to meet this SC).
Impact of Nonconformance with SC 3.1.2 Language of Parts
| Type of Disability | Description of Impact |
|---|---|
| 302.1 Without Vision | Users who are blind cannot use a mouse to interact with electronic content and typically use an assistive technology, such as a screen reader, to get audible or other alternative output for the information represented visually. To be able to navigate the content, understand its structure and relationships, and understand the meaning of content represented in graphics and images, the content must provide textual and programmatic cues in addition to the content presented purely visually. |
| 302.2 With Limited Vision | Users with limited vision may have widely different visual perception. Individuals with limited vision may or may not use assistive technologies. Therefore, in addition to textual and programmatic cues necessary for assistive technologies, ICT must also present content consistently and predictably. Users who view content with magnifiers may not pick up alerts, warnings, or other content if such content is presented outside of a consistent and predictable navigation pattern or if the content is not itself viewable at large magnification. Content that becomes distorted when magnified can also prevent some users with limited vision from being able to understand or interact with the content. |
| 302.4 Without Hearing | When ICT provides information, instructions, or cues audibly, users who are deaf will not receive the information. Typically, providing the same information visibly (e.g., providing a warning light or textual dialog to accompany an audible warning sound or captions for audio dialog and other audible information in a video) will enable users who are deaf to get equivalent information. |
| 302.5 With Limited Hearing | Some users cannot hear sounds below certain volumes or at certain frequencies and may not be able hear certain audio outputs from ICT. Background noise can also be problematic for users with limited hearing. Providing modes of operation that enhance audio clarity (e.g., filtering out hisses and pops, blocking sounds at specific frequencies, normalizing voice volumes, removing constant tone patterns), increase the range of volume, increase volume at higher frequencies, and/or give users control over such settings can help users with limited hearing understand, navigate, and operate the ICT. Users with limited hearing may also benefit from some of the same methods used to provide information to users without hearing. |
| 302.9 With Limited Language, Cognitive, and Learning Abilities | Some users require more time than average to process information while others may find complicated instructions difficult to follow. Furthermore, some ICT content can distract or overwhelm users, preventing them from being able to interact with or understand other ICT content. Designers and developers of ICT must consider a broad range of cognitive abilities in order to provide ICT that is simple and easy to use. |
Applicability of Success Criteria 3.1.2 Language of Parts
| Technology | Applicability of SC 3.1.2 Language of Parts |
|---|---|
| Web | If the human language for a particular paragraphs or passage of text differs from the default language for the page, developers can define the human language for any subpart of a Web page by defining the lang attribute on the particular element that contains text. |
| Software | If the human language for a particular paragraphs or passage of text differs from the default language for the software application, developers can define the language for that control or application node by defining the language via the native software accessibility programming interface’s language or “culture” property. |
| Office documents | Content authors can set the language for a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph in the proofing and editing preferences for MS Office products. |
| PDF documents | Content authors can set the language for any subpart of a document by editing the language in the object properties for any PDF document tag. |
| Mobile Native | Developers can define the language for an application control or node by defining the language via the native software accessibility programming interface’s language or “culture” property. |