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Re: PPT to clean HTML

for

From: John Foliot - WATS.ca
Date: Dec 14, 2004 5:34PM

Glenda wrote:
> > Also, while I'm here, I have an ALT that has English and
> French, ie a
> > Government of Canada department logo. How do I indicate
> the change in
> > LANG???

Glenda,

The Government of Canada's Common Look and Feel Standards[1] addresses this
elsewhere. Essentially, even though the "image" has two languages it's not
really the issue. The question needed to be asked is "what is the language
of the actual document?"

From an accessibility standpoint, this actually makes sense. People with
cognitive disabilities coupled with visual disabilities *might* become
confused with the language shift; Francophones who do not read or speak
English have no need for the English text, etc. etc.

For what it's worth, Common Look and Feel states: "Standard 7.7 - All text
equivalents must be given in the language of the Web page in which they are
embedded."[2] Thus, your FIP should have English alt text in the English
document, and French alt text in the French document. I can state that this
is the "official line" as far as CLF is concerned:

7.7 - This principle is consistent with that set out under
Standard 7.6.

7.6 - The principle set out under 7.6 is intended to ensure that,
once a user has selected the official language for content, messages are
generated in the official language of the Web page.[3]


Finally, if, for whatever reason, the person who signs off does not believe
that these points equal uni-lingual alt text, remember that bilingual
"messages" must be in the order of the originating document; i.e. French
language documents must read French/English, whereas English language
documents must read English/French [4]



[1] http://www.cio-dpi.gc.ca/clf-nsi/
[2] http://www.cio-dpi.gc.ca/clf-nsi/inter/inter-07-07_e.asp
[3] http://www.cio-dpi.gc.ca/clf-nsi/inter/inter-07-06_e.asp
[4] Checkpoint 7.6 also states "...bilingual messages must be generated for
both English Web pages and French Web pages. In bilingual messages, the
order of the two official languages has to give priority to the language of
the Web page."

>
> > Also, while I'm here, I have an ALT that has English and
> French, ie a
> > Government of Canada department logo. How do I indicate
> the change in
> > LANG???

Hope this helps.

JF
--
John Foliot <EMAIL REMOVED>
Web Accessibility Specialist / Co-founder of WATS.ca
Web Accessibility Testing and Services
http://www.wats.ca 1.866.932.4878 (North America)