Technique H25:Providing a title using the title element

About this Technique

This technique relates to 2.4.2 Page Titled (Sufficient when used with G88: Providing descriptive titles for web pages).

This technique applies to HTML.

Techniques are examples of ways to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). They are not required to meet WCAG. Content can satisfy the normative requirements of WCAG even if it does not use any of the documented techniques. See About WCAG Techniques.

Description

All HTML documents, including those in frames, have a title element in the head section that defines in a simple phrase the purpose of the document. This helps users to orient themselves within the site quickly without having to search for orientation information in the body of the page.

Note that the (mandatory) title element, which only appears once in a document, is different from the title attribute, which may be applied to almost every HTML element.

Examples

Example 1

This example defines a document's title.

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>The World Wide Web Consortium</title>     
  </head>
  <body>
      ...   
  </body> 
</html>

Related Resources

No endorsement implied.

HTML - The title element.

Tests

Procedure

Examine the source code of the HTML document and check that a non-empty title element appears in the head section.
Check that the title element describes the document.

Expected Results

Checks #1 and #2 are true.

Test Rules

The following are Test Rules related to this Technique. It is not necessary to use these particular Test Rules to check for conformance with WCAG, but they are defined and approved test methods. For information on using Test Rules, see Understanding Test Rules for WCAG Success Criteria.