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Testing webpages and downloadable files - non-English

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From: Morin, Gary (NIH/OD) [E]
Date: Sep 10, 2015 3:04PM

Greetings!
I'm working with an organization that is producing a website which is in English, but hosts over a thousand files, the majority of which are currently in PDF format and are in languages other than English (every document is in English and is represented in 2 to ten other languages per file). The staff are currently deciding whether or not to keep the format as PDF files or in time to convert everything into HTML 5. What's more, a great many of the languages included are ones with alphabets other than the Roman/Latin alphabet.
The main website is in English since it's directed at healthcare providers and community-based organizations who would be interacting with members of the public. The material would be discussed with the client and printed for them, either from the HTML or PDF version.
Can anyone provide any guidance or suggestions for ensuring that these files or more importantly this content is accessible, as well as Section 508 conformant, since this is a federal agency. They would like to include screen reader testing, in addition to formatting the files and content for standards from the US Access Board. Is anyone knowledgeable about which screen readers handle languages other than English, particularly those with other alphabets? My office currently has JAWS, WindowEyes, and NVDA for screen readers for testing; I'm also aware of Dolphin - are there others that could or should be considered?
I've included the draft listing of languages, below. Any guidance on formatting and testing of multilingual (and multi-alphabet) content would be most appreciated!

Language
Amharic
Arabic
Basque
Bhutanese
Bosnian
Burmese
Cantonese (Hong Kong)
Catalan
Chinese
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Dutch (Belgium)
Dutch (Netherlands)
English (Australia)
English (India)
English (Ireland)
English (Scotland)
English (South Africa)
English (U.S.)
English (UK)
Farsi
Finnish
Flemish (Belgium)
French (Canada)
French (France)
Galician
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Karen
Khmer
Kirundi
Korean
Mandarin (Mainland China)
Mandarin (Taiwan)
Nepali
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Portuguese (Brazil)
Romanian
Russian
Slovakian
Somali
Spanish (Argentina)
Spanish (Castilian)
Spanish (Colombia)
Spanish (Latin American)
Spanish (Mexico)
Spanish (Spain)
Swahili
Swedish
Thai
Tigrinya
Turkish
Vietnamese


Gary M. Morin, Program Analyst
NIH Office of the Chief Information Officer

6555 Rock Spring Drive, Suite 300, Room 3NE-28
Bethesda, MD. 20817, Mail Stop: 4801

(301) 402-3924 Voice, (301) 451-9326 TTY/NTS
(240) 200 5030 Videophone; (301) 402-4464 Fax

NIH Section 508: http://508.nih.gov, NIH Section 508 Coordinators list: https://ocio.nih.gov/ITGovPolicy/NIH508/Pages/Section508Coordinators.aspx

NIH Section 508 Team: mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ?subject=Section 508 Help or, for Section 508 Guidance, http://www.hhs.gov/web/508/index.html

Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to.

WHAT IF THE FIRST QUESTION WE ASKED WAS, "WHAT IS SO UNIQUE ABOUT THIS SITUATION THAT IT JUSTIFIES EXCLUSION? INSTEAD OF, "HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE?