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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mon, Jun 06 2011 5:30PM
Subject: Effort and time required to translate WCAG 2.0 guidelines into a new language?
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Hi everyone.

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.
-B

From: John Foliot
Date: Mon, Jun 06 2011 6:18PM
Subject: Re: Effort and time required to translate WCAG 2.0 guidelines into a new language?
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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

============================

From: John Foliot
Date: Mon, Jun 06 2011 6:24PM
Subject: Re: Effort and time required to translate WCAG 2.0 guidelines into a new language?
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Addendum:

Translated into Finnish as well...
(http://www.w3.org/Translations/WCAG20-fi/)

JF

>

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mon, Jun 06 2011 7:54PM
Subject: Re: Effort and time required to translate WCAG 2.0 guidelines into a new language?
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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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Addendum:
>
> Translated into Finnish as well...
> (http://www.w3.org/Translations/WCAG20-fi/)
>
> JF
>
>>

From: John Foliot
Date: Mon, Jun 06 2011 8:09PM
Subject: Re: Effort and time required to translate WCAG 2.0 guidelines into a new language?
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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.

Cool.

While I do not want to discourage any translation (and so cheer you one),
I also noted that the Nordic Counsel uses Danish, Norwegian and Swedish as
its official working languages, and so as a start, pointing fellow web
developers to the official English, Norwegian and Swedish versions would
likely capture much of your intended audience while the translation
process was happening - those versions would also allow for multiple users
to cross-check your Icelandic version for accuracy of intent (as opposed
to just word-for-word translations). At the same time, it would seem that
the Nordic counsel also could be a partner in funding the Icelandic
translations
(http://www.norden.org/en/about-nordic-co-operation/agreements/treaties-an
d-agreements/language/the-nordic-language-convention) if I am to read that
web page correctly.

At any rate, I wish you well and good luck on this project.

Cheers!

JF

From: Shadi Abou-Zahra
Date: Tue, Jun 07 2011 8:48AM
Subject: Re: Effort and time required to translate WCAG 2.0 guidelines into a new language?
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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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>> Addendum:
>>
>> Translated into Finnish as well...
>> (http://www.w3.org/Translations/WCAG20-fi/)
>>
>> JF
>>
>>>

From: Karen Mardahl
Date: Tue, Jun 07 2011 9:21AM
Subject: Re: Effort and time required to translate WCAG 2.0 guidelines into a new language?
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Hi Birkir

When John Foliot listed the official Nordic translations for WCAG 2.0, he
forgot the Danish one!

http://www.w3.org/Translations/WCAG20-da/

You asked whether anyone could give you an estimate of the time such a
translation would take, etc. Contact Helle Bjarnø listed on that page. She
could probably give you a quick estimate of the time and effort involved.

regards, Karen Mardahl