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Thread: Language Switching
Number of posts in this thread: 9 (In chronological order)
From: Schulz, Leslie
Date: Thu, Mar 25 2021 2:07PM
Subject: Language Switching
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I know how to write the language attribute. I can set up language switching in JAWS and NVDA. My question is: how do you set up language switching on a MacBook Pro. I have the Catalina OS. I have seen information about setting up an iPad or iPhone but not the MacBook Pro. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Leslie
Leslie Schulz
Web Accessibility Specialist, Learning Team
Content and Learning | Higher Ed & Skills
Quality Learning for All
PHONE: 214.212.7379 Central Time
EMAIL: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
WEB: cengage.com<http://www.cengage.com/>;
From: glen walker
Date: Thu, Mar 25 2021 3:56PM
Subject: Re: Language Switching
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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.
From: Joe Humbert (A11y)
Date: Thu, Mar 25 2021 4:22PM
Subject: Re: Language Switching
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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
From: Jonathan Cohn
Date: Mon, Mar 29 2021 5:40AM
Subject: Re: Language Switching
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OK, the speech rotor in MacOS Catalina and higher is a bit difficult to type.
Use. if your VO key is caps lock then use caps lock with shift and command with your left hand. Then with your right hand use the left or right arrow key until you hear "Voice followed by a voice name" . At this point use the Up arrow key until you hear automatically switch based on language.
Best wishes,
You might want to also open VOiceOver utility and adjust the languages synthesizers that are available. Generally only "compact" versions of these are installed by default. There is a plus sign (I believe VoiceOver says add a language) on the voices page by default there is only one language in the Voices table. Then you can click on the language name and go to the bottom of the list. to customize. This will list all 170 synthesizers voices that are available.
Jonathan Cohn
> On Mar 25, 2021, at 18:22, Joe Humbert (A11y) < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
From: Schulz, Leslie
Date: Mon, Mar 29 2021 7:43AM
Subject: Re: Language Switching with Screen Readers
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To Glen Walker,
Yes, I would like the screen reader to change voices while teaching a language, so one word in English and its definition in Spanish or similar situations.
I will look into using the Rotor.
I can manually switch from one language to another in Mac Voiceover, but it is an all of nothing for me.
For NVDA, you must change the Synthesizer to eSpeak NG.
http://espeak.sourceforge.net/
You may also have to download some voices/languages.
Thanks for your suggestions!
Leslie
To Joe Humbert:
Voiceover on MacOs v10.15.7 switches for you automatically.
It does NOT switch for me.
I have downloaded languages.
I have downloaded voices.
I have tried to find a toggle to turn on language switching.
In another group, I was sent a screen shot that showed a toggle, but it was for the iPad.
I believe the iPad and the iPhone easily support language switching.
If you are using a MacBook Pro laptop, then I still wish for insight as to where the settings are that I am missing.
The page you sent shows English all in one paragraph and Francais all in one paragraph.
I know there is a keyboard shortcut to first read all English and then use the keyboard shortcut to switch to the other language. I don't know if that is how you are reading those 2 paragraphs. But that is not what I need. I need the language switching to take place from 1 word or phrase to the next, back and forth. I can get this to work in both JAWS and NVDA, but not VoiceOver.
The tall boys-los muchachos altos
The tall girls-las muchachas altas
Thank you, Joe,
Leslie
From: glen walker
Date: Mon, Mar 29 2021 9:24AM
Subject: Re: Language Switching with Screen Readers
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I've never liked the espeak synthesizer. I've always used the Microsoft
API but recently switched to Windows OneCore. Not being able to switch
languages finally bugged me enough that I tracked it down. I have to
install different language packs (which I already knew) but for OneCore, I
have to install the language packs for Microsoft Narrator. That's the part
I was missing. I went into the Narrator settings and added more voices for
other languages and now NVDA automatically switches voices when it
encounters a new lang attribute. I can provide more details on how I did
that if anyone needs it. I used to switch to JAWS to demo the language
voice changing but now I don't have to.
On Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 7:43 AM Schulz, Leslie < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:
>
> For NVDA, you must change the Synthesizer to eSpeak NG.
> http://espeak.sourceforge.net/
> You may also have to download some voices/languages.
>
>
From: Joe Humbert (A11y)
Date: Mon, Mar 29 2021 9:29AM
Subject: Re: Language Switching with Screen Readers
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Hi Leslie,
I have not intentionally downloaded and voices or languages on my Macbook pro.
I also reset all of my VoiceOver settings to factory default and tested my test page again. Here are my results
Navigating the page one element at a time using Ctrl + Option + right arrow (standard forward navigation), VoiceOver reads the English heading and text in English then automatically (with no extra keystrokes) reads the French heading and text passage in French.
I added a section as you described. One group of words in English then One in Spanish (in the same paragraph) and when I navigate to that paragraph, VoiceOver reads the English text in English and the Spanish text in Spanish automatically switching between the languages
It automatically switches for the two list items as well with the mixed languages.
I have coded the page with a default language of English and the sections with different languages with the appropriate language attributes of each language (lang="fr" for French and lang="es" for Spanish).
I created my test page to see if VoiceOver would automatically switch languages because Glen said he didn't have a Mac to test on. This page was not meant to solve your specific issue.
Thankx,
Joe Humbert, CPWA
Accessibility Champion
Android & iOS Accessibility Novice
Twitter: @joehumbert
From: Schulz, Leslie
Date: Mon, Mar 29 2021 10:06AM
Subject: Re: Language Switching VoiceOver
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To Glen Walker
Thank you for the advice about Narrator.
I don't enjoy the eSpeak synthesizer for NVDA, but it does do language switching.
To Jonathan Cohn
I have been to the rotor and tried to set that.
Still no luck with language switching.
I have many voices downloaded, but I am not sure which one to use.
I have Spanish (Mexico) Female, Angelica
Spanish (Mexico)- Male Siri Male
Spanish (Spain) Siri Female
Any specific languages that you recommend?
Thanks,
Leslie
From: Schulz, Leslie
Date: Tue, Mar 30 2021 2:47PM
Subject: Re: Language Switching in VoiceOver Solved!!!
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Thank you to all for the advice about language switching!
Turns out one of our developers was able to help.
He had never changed a setting on his MacBook Pro, but he could still hear language switching within sentences and paragraphs.
We checked all his settings. He had never downloaded any new voices.
But when he shared his screen and walked through what he was doing, he mentioned that he was using the VoiceOver key, which could be Control Option, but he had set it to Caplock. Then he used the right and left arrow keys.
In NVDA and JAWS, you just use the down arrow to read down the page. You don't have to hold down another key to get this to work. So in VoiceOver, I was just using the down arrow key, which actually worked, sort of. It read the text but it never switched languages.
Maybe you Mac users are all shaking your heads that I could have missed something so simple. But as a teacher, I know that some things are not obvious to the beginner. I definitely plan to do some Mac and VoiceOver tutorials.
For now though, the big news is that I can hear language switching on all 3: VoiceOver, JAWS, and NVDA.
So if anyone needs any help with that, just let me know!
Thanks!
Leslie