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From: Praful Sojitra
Date: Thu, Aug 10 2023 7:05AM
Subject: Multilingual Web Accessibility Testing Approach
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Hi,

What will the best approach to test the foreign language (non-English) web application/websites? Using Google translator will be wise? How to handle content which are not translated by Google translator like video, images etc.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thank you,
Praful

From: tim.harshbarger
Date: Thu, Aug 10 2023 9:19AM
Subject: Re: Multilingual Web Accessibility Testing Approach
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There are some accessibility issues which can only be tested if the tester understands the language of the content. Optimally, the tester should have a fluency with the language that is similar to the people who will be using the content.

Testing is going to be less effective, the less fluent the tester is.

To me, that means using automated translations of content will be less effective. How much less is going to depend on how good the automated translations are.

Personally, I think I would only want to test using automated testing if I had absolutely no other options available. Even then, I would want to advise whoever received my report that I had relied on automated translations which may have impacted the results of the testing.

Others may have more experience testing this way and may have different opinions than myself.

Thanks,
Tim

From: glen walker
Date: Thu, Aug 10 2023 12:22PM
Subject: Re: Multilingual Web Accessibility Testing Approach
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First off, keep in mind that "foreign language" is relative to the tester.
Just because a site is not in English doesn't mean it's a foreign language.
I know that's just a nit-pick but this forum is international so there are
lots of native languages.

Secondly, you asked for the "best approach" for testing a website/app that
is in a language not native to the tester. The best approach is to use a
tester that is a native language speaker. The second best approach is to
use a tester that uses that language as a second (or third) language that
they understand.

If no one is available that understands that language, then using a
translator is about all you can do. I've done this before but before I
accepted the project, I made sure the client knew all the caveats of
testing without knowing the language and that the testing takes longer (and
thus more expensive).

Assuming the translation is decent (such as using Chrome and
auto-translate, which I'm not claiming is "decent" but it's a handy
feature), then you *might* be able to test whether text is "descriptive" as
it pertains to 1.1.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.6, etc.

Of course, there is testing that can be done regardless of the language,
such as contrast, use of color, resize text, focus visible.

So it's possible.


On Thu, Aug 10, 2023 at 7:06 AM Praful Sojitra <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Hi,
>
> What will the best approach to test the foreign language (non-English) web
> application/websites? Using Google translator will be wise? How to handle
> content which are not translated by Google translator like video, images
> etc.
>
> Any help will be appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
> Praful
>
> > > > >

From: jp Jamous
Date: Thu, Aug 10 2023 6:58PM
Subject: Re: Multilingual Web Accessibility Testing Approach
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Hi Praful,

It is usually difficult to test accessibility with foreign languages. Even if you use Google Translate, there will always be things that would not translate properly.

I speak 3 languages. English, Arabic and French. Here is an example where Google Translate would fail.
Arabic: "Shoe Fee Ma Fee?"
English: "What's up?"
Google Translation: "What is in not in"

Yes, you read the Google Translation correct, because that what was said verbatim in Arabic. Another example would be:
English: "I need to run to the store"
Arabic: "we cannot use the words Need or Run, because they would sound weird in Arabic. We would have to say, "I want to jump to the store."

That is the reason why interpreters never translate verbatim rather they provide the point behind each phrase.

The concern with A11Y testing is you can get a link label incorrect if Google Translate converts it to English verbatim. Yet, in the native language, it is a clear link label. That is the biggest difficulty you are going to find with this.

As far as markup, that is no problem. Wave and Axe along with other testing methods would be just fine.

Videos is another impossible way of testing. You must convert the foreign language into something Google Translate can read. Honestly, I don't know of anything that can handle videos. Even closed captioning of movies are still being done by human beings as far as I know. AI might be something promising for the future.

Lastly, Arabic, Spanish and many of those old languages can have various dialects. While there is a common official Arabic dialect that can be understood by almost all Arabic speaking countries, there is a list of dialects that can differ completely from one another. Here is an example,

I speak Lebanese Arabic. I can understand Syrian Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Jordanian Arabic. As far as Iraqi, UAK and Saudi Arabic, I would have to stop people often or ask them to speak slower. Some words and even alphabet letters are completely different from what I know. As we look at Arabic speaking countries in Africa, I have a very hard time understanding Libyans, Moroccans, and Algerians. That's how complicated it can be.

Sorry if I made it more difficult than you thought, but that is the nature of human languages. That is why Music and Math are universal languages. We all know them and can comprehend them. 😊

I would encourage you to find someone that knows English and the foreign language you are testing. You might find some Ais that might help, but be very careful of dialects. They can change the meaning of a word completely.

From: Praful Sojitra
Date: Fri, Aug 11 2023 12:04PM
Subject: Re: Multilingual Web Accessibility Testing Approach
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Thank you this helps.

Thank you,
Praful