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Re: Language Switching

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From: Joe Humbert (A11y)
Date: Mar 25, 2021 4:22PM

I just tested with VoiceOver on MacOS v10.15.7 and it switches automatically.

Test page (just created): https://a11yeval.com/a11y/multi-lang.html

Thankx,
Joe Humbert, CPWA
Accessibility Champion
Android & iOS Accessibility Novice
Twitter: @joehumbert

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of glen walker
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2021 5:57 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Language Switching

Are you asking how to enable a screen reader to automatically change voices when it encounters a lang attribute that is different from the page default, and specifically how to do that with VoiceOver on the Mac?

For me, JAWS and VoiceOver/iOS automatically switch. I have never been able to get NVDA to do it. I don't have my Mac anymore so I can't comment on that, which I know is your question specifically.

I can manually switch languages on VoiceOver/iOS by using the rotor but only if I have multiple languages set in VoiceOver. Go into Accessibility settings > VoiceOver > Speech and add a new language to the rotor languages at the bottom. This will automatically add a "Language" option to your rotor. In fact, you can't remove the rotor setting. (You can confirm in Accessibility settings > VoiceOver > Rotor and notice the Language option is checked and dimmed/disabled. You can't uncheck it.)

I've used the rotor on the Mac before but can't remember if there's a language option.