Intent
The intent of this Success Criterion is to help users find content and orient themselves within it by ensuring that each Web page has a descriptive title. Titles identify the current location without requiring users to read or interpret page content. When titles appear in site maps or lists of search results, users can more quickly identify the content they need. User agents make the title of the page easily available to the user for identifying the page. For instance, a user agent may display the page title in the window title bar or as the name of the tab containing the page.
In cases where the page is a document or a web application, the name of the document or web application would be sufficient to describe the purpose of the page. Note that it is not required to use the name of the document or web application; other things may also describe the purpose or the topic of the page.
Success Criteria 2.4.4 and 2.4.9 deal with the purpose of links, many of which are links to web pages. Here also, the name of a document or web application being linked to would be sufficient to describe the purpose of the link. Having the link and the title agree, or be very similar, is good practice and provides continuity between the link 'clicked on' and the web page that the user lands on.
Benefits
- This criterion benefits all users in allowing users to quickly and easily identify whether the information contained in the Web page is relevant to their needs.
- People with visual disabilities will benefit from being able to differentiate content when multiple Web pages are open.
- People with cognitive disabilities, limited short-term memory and reading disabilities also benefit from the ability to identify content by its title.
- This criterion also benefits people with severe mobility impairments whose mode of operation relies on audio when navigating between Web pages.
Examples
-
An HTML Web page
The descriptive title of an HTML Web page is marked up with the <title> element so that it will be displayed in the title bar of the user agent.
-
A document collection.
The title of Understanding WCAG 2.1 is "Understanding WCAG 2.1."
- The introduction page has the title "Introduction to Understanding WCAG 2.0."
- Major sections of the document are pages titled "Understanding Guideline X" and "Understanding Success Criterion X."
- Appendix A has the title "Glossary."
- Appendix B has the title "Acknowledgements."
- Appendix C has the title "References."
-
A Web application.
A banking application lets a user inspect his bank accounts, view past statements, and perform transactions. The Web application dynamically generates titles for each Web page, e.g., "Bank XYZ, accounts for John Smith" "Bank XYZ, December 2005 statement for Account 1234-5678".
Related Resources
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.
-
Writing
Better
Web
Page
Titles
.How to write titles for Web pages that will enhance search engine effectiveness. -
Guidelines
for
Accessible
and
Usable
Web
Sites:
Observing
Users
Who
Work
With
Screen
Readers
(PDF). Theofanos, M.F., and Redish, J. (2003). Interactions, Volume X, Issue 6, November-December 2003, pages 38-51,https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/947226.947227http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=947226.947227
Techniques
Each numbered item in this section represents a technique or combination of techniques that the WCAG Working Group deems sufficient for meeting this Success Criterion. However, it is not necessary to use these particular techniques. For information on using other techniques, see Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria , particularly the "Other Techniques" section.
Sufficient Techniques
-
G88: Providing descriptive titles for Web pages AND associating a title with a Web page using one of the following techniques:
Advisory Techniques
Although not required for conformance, the following additional techniques should be considered in order to make content more accessible. Not all techniques can be used or would be effective in all situations.
Failures
The following are common mistakes that are considered failures of this Success Criterion by the WCAG Working Group.
Key
Terms
ACT
Rules
The
distinction
between
mainstream
user
agents
and
assistive
technologies
is
not
absolute.
Many
mainstream
user
agents
provide
some
features
to
assist
individuals
with
disabilities.
The
basic
difference
is
that
mainstream
user
agents
target
broad
and
diverse
audiences
that
usually
include
people
with
and
without
disabilities.
Assistive
technologies
target
narrowly
defined
populations
of
users
with
specific
disabilities.
The
assistance
provided
by
Each
numbered
item
in
this
section
represents
an
assistive
technology
is
more
specific
and
appropriate
to
the
needs
of
its
target
users.
The
mainstream
user
agent
may
provide
important
functionality
to
assistive
technologies
like
retrieving
Web
content
from
program
objects
or
parsing
markup
into
identifiable
bundles.
Assistive
technologies
ACT
Rule
that
are
important
in
the
context
WCAG
Working
Group
deems
appropriate
for
testing
certain
aspects
of
this
document
include
the
following:
screen
magnifiers,
and
other
visual
reading
assistants,
which
are
used
by
people
with
visual,
perceptual
and
physical
print
disabilities
to
change
text
font,
size,
spacing,
color,
synchronization
with
speech,
etc.
in
order
to
improve
the
visual
readability
of
rendered
text
and
images;
screen
readers,
which
are
used
by
people
who
are
blind
to
read
textual
information
through
synthesized
speech
or
braille;
text-to-speech
software,
which
Success
Criterion.
However,
it
is
used
by
some
people
with
cognitive,
language,
and
learning
disabilities
to
convert
text
into
synthetic
speech;
speech
recognition
software,
which
may
be
used
by
people
who
have
some
physical
disabilities;
alternative
keyboards,
which
are
used
by
people
with
certain
physical
disabilities
not
necessary
to
simulate
the
keyboard
(including
alternate
keyboards
that
use
head
pointers,
single
switches,
sip/puff
and
other
special
input
devices.);
alternative
pointing
devices,
which
are
used
by
people
with
certain
physical
disabilities
these
particular
ACT
Rules
to
simulate
mouse
pointing
and
button
activations.
user
agent
any
software
that
retrieves
and
presents
Web
content
check
for
users
Web
browsers,
media
players,
plug-ins,
and
other
programs
—
including
assistive
technologies
—
that
help
in
retrieving,
rendering,
and
interacting
conformance
with
Web
content.
WCAG.
For
information
on
using
ACT
Rules,
see
Understanding
ACT
Rules
for
WCAG
Success
Criteria
.
Key Terms
a non-embedded resource obtained from a single URI using HTTP plus any other resources that are used in the rendering or intended to be rendered together with it by a user agent
Although any "other resources" would be rendered together with the primary resource, they would not necessarily be rendered simultaneously with each other.
For the purposes of conformance with these guidelines, a resource must be "non-embedded" within the scope of conformance to be considered a Web page.
A Web resource including all embedded images and media.
A Web mail program built using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX). The program lives entirely at http://example.com/mail, but includes an inbox, a contacts area and a calendar. Links or buttons are provided that cause the inbox, contacts, or calendar to display, but do not change the URI of the page as a whole.
A customizable portal site, where users can choose content to display from a set of different content modules.
When you enter "http://shopping.example.com/" in your browser, you enter a movie-like interactive shopping environment where you visually move around in a store dragging products off of the shelves around you and into a visual shopping cart in front of you. Clicking on a product causes it to be demonstrated with a specification sheet floating alongside. This might be a single-page Web site or just one page within a Web site.