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Overview

Make text content readable and understandable in different languages.

General Guidelines

Provide human translation of vital information in the threshold languages defined by the Language Access Ordinance. This includes clear navigation to translations.

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Translation for other relevant languages is encouraged

JAWS Screen Reader and Languages

JAWS provides language switching with any supported speech synthesizer. When a Web page author indicates the language of an entire page, or just part of a page, if the synthesizer in use supports that language, JAWS uses the language specific version of the synthesizer to speak the text. The synthesizer must support the language of the information. If the synthesizer does not support the language specified for a page or part of a page, JAWS still indicates the language of the information. For example for Chinese JAWS will say, “heading level 2 , Chinese”

The languages that are spoken by JAWS depends on the synthesizer currently in use.  If you are using the default Eloquence synthesizer that is installed with JAWS, the following languages are available: 

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  • American English

  • British English

  • Castilian Spanish

  • Latin American Spanish

  • French, French Canadian

  • German

  • Italian

  • Brazilian Portuguese

  • Finnish

Provide Default Human Language

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Make sure that a “lang” attribute has been specified in the markup on every web page.

Example:

<html lang="en">

Please see more detailed information on how to comply with this guideline.

Content Presented in a Different Language Than the Default Language

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  • It allows braille translation software to follow changes in language, e.g., substitute control codes for accented characters, and insert control codes necessary to prevent erroneous creation of Grade 2 braille contractions.

  • Speech synthesizers that support multiple languages will be able to speak the text in the appropriate accent with proper pronunciation. If changes are not marked, the synthesizer will try its best to speak the words in the default language it works in. Thus, the French word for car, "voiture" would be pronounced "voyture" by a speech synthesizer that uses English as its default language.

  • Marking changes in language can benefit future developments in technology, for example users who are unable to translate between languages themselves will be able to use machines to translate unfamiliar languages.

  • Marking changes in language can also assist user agents in providing definitions using a dictionary.

JAWS Screen Reader and Languages

JAWS provides language switching with any supported speech synthesizer. When a Web page author indicates the language of an entire page, or just part of a page, if the synthesizer in use supports that language, JAWS uses the language specific version of the synthesizer to speak the text. The synthesizer must support the language of the information. If the synthesizer does not support the language specified for a page or part of a page, JAWS still indicates the language of the information. For example for Chinese JAWS will say, “heading level 2 , Chinese”

The languages that are spoken by JAWS depends on the synthesizer currently in use.  If you are using the default Eloquence synthesizer that is installed with JAWS, the following languages are available: 

  • American English

  • British English

  • Castilian Spanish

  • Latin American Spanish

  • French, French Canadian

  • German

  • Italian

  • Brazilian Portuguese

  • Finnish

Request Language Services

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Language Access Ordinance - Full Text

WCAG Related References

3.1.1 Language of Page (Level A)

3.1.2 Language of Parts (Level AA)