ACT Rule c4a8a4
HTML page title is descriptive
This asks whether the page title describes what the page is about. Not whether a title exists, whether it says anything.
A tool can decide this one on its own, which is why it turns up in scanner output. The rule is approved, which in W3C's process means it was implemented in full by at least one tool or methodology and then signed off by a working group. Approval is a statement about tools, not a statement that this is the settled way to test the criterion.
What passing this rule proves
This is one of only four rules in the whole published set where W3C says a passing result satisfies the criterion outright. If the rule applies to your page and every result passes, 2.4.2 Page Titled is satisfied. A failing result means it is not. On 59 of the other live rules a pass only means no failure of that kind was found, and the remaining 24 name no criterion for a pass to clear.
Deciding whether a title fits a page is reading rather than parsing, which is why most of the implementations behind this rule involve a person. And if the rule finds no title element at all it returns inapplicable, and an inapplicable result sends the criterion back to needing further testing.
The criteria this rule is a test for
These are the criteria the rule names as its own conformance requirement. Each one is a far bigger question than this rule asks, and our page for it sets out what the whole criterion covers.
- 2.4.2 Page Titled Level A
The normative rule text lives at W3C
What the rule applies to, and exactly what it expects, is published by W3C and can change. We link to it rather than restate it, so nothing here can quietly fall out of date against the source. Read rule c4a8a4 at W3C.
Text that exists is not the same as text that means something
Some rules go past whether text exists and ask whether it says anything. A heading called Section 2, a link called read more, a label called field. Each one is filled in and each one is empty of meaning.
This matters most to people who navigate by jumping. Screen reader users pull up a list of the links or headings on a page and read that list on its own, with no surrounding text to understand it by.
Repeated link text is the clearest case. Five links all reading read more are indistinguishable in a list. However clear they look beside their paragraphs, the list alone reveals they are all the same.
Fixes that satisfy it
If this rule fails on your site, these are the techniques that put it right.
Other rules W3C files under the same criteria
Each of these asks a different question about the same part of the standard. Passing all of them is still not the same as satisfying the criterion.
- HTML page has non-empty title A tool can check this
All 87 ACT rules are grouped by the criteria they test, and 24 of them decide nothing about WCAG on their own. Run a free scan to see which of these your own pages trip.