- From: Yvette Hoitink <y.p.hoitink@heritas.nl>
- Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:16:58 +0200
- To: <public-wcag-teamb@w3.org>
Hello everyone, I took an action item to research the various ways to specify the primary language in HTML. As far as I could determine, specifying the natural language of an HTML-document has only been possible since HTML 4. (Side note: This may have serious repercussions for the achievability of level 1 because it means you will not be able to comply with WCAG with versions of HTML prior to HTML 4. This is something that I think should be discussed in the group at large.) There turn out to be several ways to specify the natural language in HTML 4+. Some of the resources contradict each other as to what the preferred method is. That's why I first want to present the problems and my views to see if you agree with that before I write the techniques. I have found three ways to specify the primary language in HTML: LANG-ATTRIBUTE OF THE HTML ELEMENT Use the lang-attribute of the HTML element. Example: <html lang="nl"> This has been around since HTML 4. [1] XML:LANG-ATTRIBUTE OF THE HTML ELEMENT Use the xml:lang-attribute of the HTML element when specifying the language of an element. Example: <html xml:lang="nl" when specifying the language of an element> The xml:lang attribute was introduced in XHTML 1.0 and is only valid for XHTML 1+. The xml:lang-attribute is to be used together with the lang-attribute to make sure the XHTML documents render on older HTML user agents. [2] META-ELEMENT USING HTTP-EQUIP AND CONTENT ATTRIBUTES Use the meta-element to specify the language using the http-equiv and the content attribute. Example: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language" Content="fr, en">. This causes the language(s) to be transmitted in the Content-Language field of the HTTP header. The order of the languages is important here, the first language is the language of the base content. A note that was written to clarify the HTML 4 specification recommends using the meta element to specify the language of the document as a whole, in preference to the lang-attribute. The advantages are that the language(s) will be sent in the HTTP-header and the fact that you can specify multiple languages. [2] =============================== My personal approach would be: If you have a document with multiple primary languages (for example: a Canadian document which is half in English, half in French), use the <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language" Content="fr, en"> technique together with the HTML technique for identifying changes in language to denote the language of the various sections. If you have a document with just 1 primary language, and you use HTML 4, use <html lang="nl">. If you have a document with just 1 primary lanuguage and you use XHTML 1+, use <html lang="nl" xml:lang="nl"> If you agree with this approach, I can write these three HTML techniques and clarify within the techniques when to use which. I'm only able to work on this up until Wednesday so I would appreciate any quick feedback. Yvette Hoitink Heritas, Enschede, the Netherlands E-mail: y.p.hoitink@heritas.nl WWW: http://www.heritas.nl [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/dirlang.html#h-8.1 [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#C_7 [3] http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/NOTE-html-lan-19980313
Received on Monday, 12 September 2005 12:18:55 UTC