Web pages have titles that describe a topic or purpose.
On this page:
Rationale
Descriptive page titles help users orient themselves when navigating a Web site or Web application. For example, screen readers help blind users orient themselves by reading page titles before reading other page content, enabling quick identification of pages within a Web site or Web application. If titles are missing or not descriptive, it forces screen reader users to browse deeply into the content in order to determine the essence of a page. A descriptive page title also helps identify page subjects in search results and site maps where they are read out of context.
Required development techniques
Compliance with this checkpoint requires all of the following techniques to be met.
These techniques are defined in the WCAG 2.0 Level A Success Criterion for Guidelines 2.4.2 (link resides outside of ibm.com).
1. Provide Web page titles: Provide descriptive titles for Web pages AND associate a title with a Web page.
Examples for General developers
1. Provide Web page titles: Provide descriptive titles for Web pages AND associate a title with a Web page.
To comply with this technique, all of the following examples must be implemented.
Example 1
Web page titles should be short, identify the subject of the page and be understandable when read alone or out of context. These attributes allow users to quickly understand a page subject without reading deeply into the content. For example, when a page loads with the following title, users quickly understand that they have navigated to an accessibility page for developers and testers.
<title>Human Ability and Accessibility Center | Developers testers</title>
For more examples refer to WCAG to Providing descriptive titles for Web pages (link resides outside of ibm.com).
Examples for HTML developers
For techniques that have no technology-specific examples, refer to the General example section for guidance.
1. Provide Web page titles: Provide descriptive titles for Web pages AND associate a title with a Web page.
To comply with this technique, the following example must be implemented.
Example 2
Provide a title using the title element. All Web pages, including those in frames must have a title element in the head section of the page. As noted in the previous example, titles help users to navigate pages without having to read deeply into the content. The following example defines a descriptive title element in the head section of a Web page.
<html>
<head>
<title>Human Ability and Accessibility Center</title>
</head>
<body>
...
</body>
</html>
For more examples, refer to WCAG Providing a title using the title element (link resides outside of ibm.com).
Required test techniques
The following test tools and techniques are required to test this checkpoint.
Test tools:
Install the following tools to test this checkpoint:
Required accessibility verification test techniques:
Use the following accessibility verification test (AVT) techniques to validate the Web content. It is recommended that these tests be performed in order.
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Use the following accessibility verification test (AVT) techniques to validate the Web content. It is recommended that these tests be performed in order. |
| Action | Result | |
|---|---|---|
|
Test the Web site with a Web syntax analyzer to verify the compliance criteria as follows:
|
Pass:
|
| Action | Result | |
|---|---|---|
|
Verify the following compliance criteria with a screen reader
For detailed instructions on how to test this checkpoint with a screen reader follow the 'Screen reader accessibility verification tests for Web checklist 5.1' document. |
Pass:
|
®2009 IBM Corporation
Last updated September 01, 2009.
W3C Recommendation 11 December 2008: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ (link resides outside of ibm.com)
Copyright 1994-2009 W3C (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, Keio University), All Rights Reserved.