Language Access
- Christina Lutz-Hatfield
- Amy Martin
Table of Contents
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.
Currently these languages are:
English
Spanish
Chinese (traditional Chinese)
Filipino
Translation for other relevant languages is encouraged
Provide Default Human Language
Ensure that the default human language of each web page can be programmatically determined.
This is to help screen readers load the correct pronunciation rules.
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
Ensure that user agents can correctly present phrases, passages, and in some cases words written in multiple languages.
This makes it possible for user agents and assistive technologies to present content according to the presentation and pronunciation rules for that language.
This applies to graphical browsers as well as screen readers, braille displays, and other voice browsers.
When content has been referred to in a different language, ensure that it has been marked with a lang attribute to help screen reader users or other assistive technology users to properly convert the text into synthetic speech.
Example:
An HTML Web page includes links to versions of the page in other languages (e.g., Deutsch, Français, Nederlands, Catalan, etc.). The text of each link is the name of the language, in that language. The language of each link is indicated via a lang attribute.
<ul>
<li><a href="..." lang="de">Deutsch</a></li>
<li><a href="..." lang="it">Italiano</a></li>
<li><a href="..." lang="fr">Français</a></li>
...
<li><a href="..." lang="zh-hant">繁體中文</a></li>
</ul>
Both assistive technologies and conventional user agents can render text more accurately if the language of each passage of text is identified. Screen readers can use the pronunciation rules of the language of the text. Visual browsers can display characters and scripts in appropriate ways. This is especially important when switching between languages that read from left to right and languages that read from right to left, or when text is rendered in a language that uses a different alphabet. Users with disabilities who know all the languages used in the Web page will be better able to understand the content when each passage is rendered appropriately.
When no other language has been specified for a phrase or passage of text, its human language should be the default human language of the web page. So the human language of all content in single language documents can be programmatically determined.
Individual words or phrases in one language can become part of another language. For example, "rendezvous" is a French word that has been adopted in English, appears in English dictionaries, and is properly pronounced by English screen readers. Hence a passage of English text may contain the word "rendezvous" without specifying that its human language is French and still satisfy this Success Criterion. Frequently, when the human language of text appears to be changing for a single word, that word has become part of the language of the surrounding text. Because this is so common in some languages, single words should be considered part of the language of the surrounding text unless it is clear that a change in language was intended. If there is doubt whether a change in language is intended, consider whether the word would be pronounced the same (except for accent or intonation) in the language of the immediately surrounding text.
Most professions require frequent use of technical terms which may originate from a foreign language. Such terms are usually not translated to all languages. The universal nature of technical terms also facilitate communication between professionals.
Some common examples of technical terms include: Homo sapiens, Alpha Centauri, hertz, and habeas corpus.
Identifying changes in language is important for a number of reasons:
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.
Request Language Services
Translation and Interpretation Request Form
Interpretation Equipment Request Form
The above forms can be found on the following web page.
Language Access Resources
Language Access Compliance Summary Report - 2024
Language Access Ordinance - Full Text
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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