Accessibility Tip: Identify Language Changes Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com> When a blind user accesses a Web page using a screenreader, the screenreader uses a specific language dictionary to know how words should be pronounced, based on the language of the page. If the wrong dictionary is used, the speech will be very difficult to understand. If the language changes in the middle of the Web page, you need to mark that change with the lang attribute, which can be set on any HTML tag, but usually on the <span> element. This will let the screenreader know which language dictionary to use when synthesizing speech. The XML equivalent of the lang attribute is xml:lang. <p> <span lang="de"> Ich bin Berliner. </span> (I am a resident of Berlin) </p>