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Re: Effort and time required to translate WCAG 2.0 guidelines into a new language?

for

From: Shadi Abou-Zahra
Date: Jun 7, 2011 8:48AM

Hi Birkir,

Great to hear about your interest in translating WCAG 2.0.

It is not possible to give exact measurement of the effort and time as
it depends on many parameters. I have observed that translation effort
increases when the language has many dialects or sub-communities. This
has been the case for French and Spanish, for example. On the positive
side, the effort seems to decrease when the translators have knowledge
of the accessibility community and the corresponding terminology.

A good approach is often to start by translating key terminology (such
as those defined in the glossary) first, then the rest of the document.
I think that the existing WCAG 2.0 translations in Nordic languages may
help accelerate your work on translating the key terminology.

Also, John was referring to the Policy for Authorized W3C Translations
[1]. This is a community-review based process to ensure consensus on a
particular translation within a language community. We have seen that
this process helps create better translations and I recommend you to
consider that opportunity too.

[1] <http://www.w3.org/2005/02/TranslationPolicy>;

Let me know if you have further questions on W3C/WAI translations.

Best,
Shadi


On 7.6.2011 03:53, Birkir R. Gunnarsson wrote:
> Thank you John
>
> I will get information from my colleagues in the Nordic countries on
> their experience with the translation process.
> I feel most comfortable with English myself (plus Icelandic is
> significantly different from even Norwegian, its the language that
> resembles it the closest).
> Thanks for the info, this will turn out very helpful.
> -B
>
> On 6/7/11, John Foliot< <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> Addendum:
>>
>> Translated into Finnish as well...
>> (http://www.w3.org/Translations/WCAG20-fi/)
>>
>> JF
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto:webaim-forum-
>>> <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of John Foliot
>>> Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 5:18 PM
>>> To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
>>> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Effort and time required to translate WCAG 2.0
>>> guidelines into a new language?
>>>
>>> Birkir R. Gunnarsson wrote:
>>>>
>>>> My rather small and financially ravished country of Iceland (with
>>> that
>>>> volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, that nobody can pronounce, English Jaws
>>>> does not do it justice), is finally waking up to thoughts of better
>>>> eGovernment services and accessibility.
>>>>
>>>> It is possible there may be some funding to translate the WCAG 2.0
>>>> standard as part of improved accessibility legislation.
>>>> Since I am prettymuch the only one who has been dealing with
>>>> accessibility issues I suspect I may be asked to do the translation,
>>>> if this becomes a reality.
>>>>
>>>> Can anyone on this list inform me on how much time (approx) it might
>>>> take to do the translation of the package, and what the process is
>>>> like to make such translation official?
>>>>
>>>> I will review the WAI information page, of course, but figured pehaps
>>>> someone who has done this translation in person might give me (and
>>>> other listers) tips and thoughts on the process.
>>>> Be well.
>>>
>>> Hi Birkir,
>>>
>>> Have you spoken with Shadi Abou-Zahra at the W3C? I am copying Shadi on
>>> this note, and I am sure he could give you some very good metrics on
>>> that
>>> question, and might be able to assist you in other ways as well (i.e.
>>> how
>>> to see them through to "official" as opposed to unofficial
>>> translations).
>>> From what I can see, the guidelines have already been officially
>>> translated into two other Nordic languages already (Swedish and
>>> Norwegian)
>>> as well as Russian - I'm not sure if any of those would be of any
>>> assistance in your efforts. (See:
>>> http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/translations)
>>>
>>> Good luck!
>>>
>>> JF
>>> ===========================>>> John Foliot
>>> Program Manager
>>> Stanford Online Accessibility Program
>>> http://soap.stanford.edu
>>> Stanford University
>>> Tel: 650-468-5785
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Co-chair - W3C HTML5 Accessibility Task Force (Media)
>>> http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/HTML/wiki/Main_Page
>>>
>>> ===========================>>>