Accessibility fix guide
Missing lang Attribute on HTML
Screen readers cannot determine the correct pronunciation language. Required by WCAG 3.1.1.
Issue ID: A11Y-LANG-001
Severity: high
Impact: Med
Effort: S
Use this article when
- You need deeper remediation guidance than the issue card can show.
- You want CMS-specific steps before handing the fix to a developer.
- You want a repeatable re-check path after shipping the change.
What this issue is
Screen readers cannot determine the correct pronunciation language. Required by WCAG 3.1.1.
Why it matters
Screen readers cannot determine the correct pronunciation language. Required by WCAG 3.1.1. This affects usability, compliance risk, and how many visitors can successfully consume the page.
How we detect it
- FreeSiteAudit flags this issue when the rule for A11Y-LANG-001 fails and the page evidence points to Head metadata.
- You can usually confirm this by checking the page source or the relevant page settings inside your CMS.
Evidence examples
Check the affected page source, rendered output, or relevant CMS setting to confirm the missing or incorrect element.
How to fix it
- 1Add lang="en" (or appropriate language code) to the <html> tag
- 2Example: <html lang="en">
How to re-check it
- Check that <html> tag has a lang attribute
Related tools
This issue is best verified with the full FreeSiteAudit crawl rather than a single-point mini tool.