WEB DEV ACCESSIBILITY TIP: Text Display Direction Switcheroo

Multi-colored arrows pointing right to left

The dir attribute is used to set the base direction of text for display. It is essential for enabling HTML in right-to-left scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, and Thaana. Numerous different languages are written with these scripts, including Arabic, Hebrew, Pashto, Persian, Sindhi, Syriac, Dhivehi, Urdu, Yiddish, etc.

The lang attribute specifies a language written right-to-left, so dir=rtl is needed to change the text layout direction.

SOLUTION: Add dir=”rtl” to the html tag any time the overall document direction is right-to-left. This sets the base direction for the whole document.

EXAMPLE FOR CONTENT DISPLAYED IN ARABIC:

<!doctype html>
<html dir=”rtl” lang=”ar”>

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