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Re: How important are page titles in a single page application?

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From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Jan 30, 2018 5:18AM

On 30/01/2018 11:57, Mark Magennis wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> If a single page application (SPA) presents as a number of distinct 'pages' of functionality, is it necessary to change the page's <title> to reflect the current function/content of the page? Assuming that the change of context is made obvious in some way. Who will even notice the <title> change? My reading of WCAG 2.4.2 page title is that it doesn't require unique <title> elements for individual 'pages' within an SPA. But is this okay in practice?

Users may not hear the change itself, but they may switch between tabs
or windows, or leave their computer for a while and return at a later
point. Or at any point, for whatever reason, they may just hit the
shortcut in their screen reader (INSERT+T in JAWS for instance) to have
the window title read out. Then it would arguably be good if they knew
the new context that they're in. You could probably argue that this
isn't *strictly* a requirement / a site that doesn't do it doesn't
*strictly* fail...but I'd tend to argue towards the fact that it goes at
least against the spirit of the SC.

Even more so if the SPA also dynamically changes the URL, and
bookmarking it in different states loads that particular state ("page")
later on...then it makes sense even for the bookmarking scenario to
ensure the <title> is correct and reflective of what's being displayed.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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