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Cornell University

Web Accessibility Reviews

All ACT Rules

HTML page title is descriptive

Applicability

This rule applies to the [document title][] of each [html web page][], except if one of the following is true:

  • The [html web page][] has no [document title][]; or
  • The [document title][] contains only whitespace text nodes.

Expectation

The target element describes the topic or purpose of the overall content of the document.

Assumptions

There are currently no assumptions.

Accessibility Support

  • This rule assumes that browsers only recognize the first title element if multiple title elements are present in the document. Testing shows that this in general is the case. Therefore the scope of this rule is limited to only checking the first title element in a document.

Background

The title elements of embedded documents, such as those in iframe, object, or svg elements, are not applicable because those are not web pages according to the definition in WCAG.

The HTML specification - The title element requires documents to only have one title element; and title elements to be children of the head element of a document. However, current HTML specification also describes what should happen in case of multiple titles, and titles outside the head element. Because of this, neither of these validation issues causes a conformance problem for WCAG.

Related rules

Bibliography

Test Cases

Passed

Passed Example 1

This title element describes the content of the document.

<html lang="en">
	<head>
		<title>Clementine harvesting season</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<p>
			Clementines will be ready to harvest from late October through February.
		</p>
	</body>
</html>

Passed Example 2

This title element, the first of two, describes the content of the document.

<html lang="en">
	<head>
		<title>Clementine harvesting season</title>
		<title>Second title is ignored</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<p>
			Clementines will be ready to harvest from late October through February.
		</p>
	</body>
</html>

Passed Example 3

This title element, which is within the body, describes the content of the document. Even though it is not placed within the head element, as expected according to the HTML specification, the rule still passes because the browser fixes it and it doesn't cause any known accessibility issues.

<html lang="en">
	<head> </head>
	<body>
		<title>Clementine harvesting season</title>
		<p>
			Clementines will be ready to harvest from late October through February.
		</p>
	</body>
</html>

Failed

Failed Example 1

This title element does not describe the content of the document.

<html lang="en">
	<head>
		<title>Apple harvesting season</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<p>
			Clementines will be ready to harvest from late October through February.
		</p>
	</body>
</html>

Failed Example 2

This title element, the first of two, does not describe the content of the document. Most browsers, and this rule, only look at the first title element.

<html lang="en">
	<head>
		<title>First title is incorrect</title>
		<title>Clementine harvesting season</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<p>
			Clementines will be ready to harvest from late October through February.
		</p>
	</body>
</html>

Failed Example 3

This page has a generic [document title][]. The title contains the website name, but does not describe the page.

<html lang="en">
	<head>
		<title>University of Arkham</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<h1>Search results for "accessibility" at the University of Arkham</h1>
		<p>None</p>
	</body>
</html>

Inapplicable

Inapplicable Example 1

This title element is a child of an svg element.

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <title>This is a circle</title>
  <circle cx="150" cy="75" r="50" fill="green"></circle>
</svg>

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