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Thread: AT and ALT text in different languages

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From: Webb, KerryA
Date: Sun, Mar 06 2011 4:18PM
Subject: AT and ALT text in different languages
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There's been a complaint about this page: http://votensw.info/enrolment

They pointed out that the images in the various languages have English ALT text.

Can anyone suggest how this could be remedied so that AT would read out the text in the appropriate language?

thanks

Kerry
(I'm not associated with that site, but it would be an issue for some of our sites)

--
Kerry Webb
Manager, Policy Office
Shared Services | ACT Government
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From: Webb, KerryA
Date: Sun, Mar 06 2011 4:57PM
Subject: Re: AT and ALT text in different languages
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>
> There's been a complaint about this page: http://votensw.info/enrolment
>
> They pointed out that the images in the various languages have English ALT
> text.
>
> Can anyone suggest how this could be remedied so that AT would read out
> the text in the appropriate language?
>

Just after I posted this, I found a reference to the use of the "lang" attribute, which would seem to fill the bill. I assume that you could put this in the <img> element.

Kerry
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From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Sun, Mar 06 2011 11:00PM
Subject: Re: AT and ALT text in different languages
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Webb, KerryA wrote:

>> There's been a complaint about this page:
>> http://votensw.info/enrolment
>>
>> They pointed out that the images in the various languages have
>> English ALT text.

They also have English TITLE text.

>> Can anyone suggest how this could be remedied so that AT would read
>> out the text in the appropriate language?

The ALT and TITLE texts should be replaced by texts in the applicable
language, i.e. the texts appearing in the images. (I would omit the TITLE
attributes as pointless, but that's a different issue and somewhat
debatable.)

For example, in the image containing the Italian text, the ALT attribute
should be
alt="Mettete il vostro nome nelle liste per votare alle elezioni".

> Just after I posted this, I found a reference to the use of the
> "lang" attribute, which would seem to fill the bill. I assume that
> you could put this in the <img> element.

You can put the lang attribute in an img element, but it surely does not
cause any translation. It would make things worse, in the rare cases where
some software interprets the attribute according to its defined meaning and
makes use of it. The attribute is declarative: it announces the language
used in the element's content and attributes - in this case, the image, the
ALT attribute, and the TITLE attribute. So if interpreted and used properly,
e.g. lang="it" in an <img> element would cause the text to be read according
to the rules of Italian, and if the text is in fact English, the result
would be... rather strange. You can, and in principle should, use lang="it"
after changing the attribute contents to Italian, though it will probably
affect very few programs.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

From: Jeevan Reddy
Date: Sun, Mar 06 2011 11:06PM
Subject: Re: AT and ALT text in different languages
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Hello KerryA,
Using Lang attribute alone wont sufficient.
should use alt text also in the corresponding language to read the language
changes by AT.
you should also consider the following Scenarios:
1 Gooogle wont consider language changes inside a document, it is totally
ment for AT. google always likes to see main document language..
2 Even you used both 'lang' and ALT text in the corresponding language,
some AT have limitation on some languages. for example if you used Lang
attribute and alt text in Arabic, JAWS says change in language well and
read that alt text just like a stupid, i.e JAWS says Arabic and and some
stupid text.
3 In your case, if you applied the above language changes, Screen readers
read the alt text in one language first, and reads the other text in
english, and cause a bit of confusion.
Cheers,
Jeevan Reddy,
Accessibility Engineer,
Onya Digital Solutions,
Bangalore, India.



On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 5:27 AM, Webb, KerryA < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> >
> > There's been a complaint about this page: http://votensw.info/enrolment
> >
> > They pointed out that the images in the various languages have English
> ALT
> > text.
> >
> > Can anyone suggest how this could be remedied so that AT would read out
> > the text in the appropriate language?
> >
>
> Just after I posted this, I found a reference to the use of the "lang"
> attribute, which would seem to fill the bill. I assume that you could put
> this in the <img> element.
>
> Kerry
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> This email, and any attachments, may be confidential and also privileged.
> If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete
> all copies of this transmission along with any attachments immediately. You
> should not copy or use it for any purpose, nor disclose its contents to any
> other person.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>

From: William Lawrence
Date: Mon, Mar 07 2011 4:24AM
Subject: Re: AT and ALT text in different languages
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> Can anyone suggest how this could be remedied so that AT would read out the text in the appropriate language?

I'd put the actual text in the language each image represents, mark it
up with the lang attribute, and place the image with your CSS. that'd
make everyone happy, mostly.


Best regards,
William