Web Access Centre Blog

Do be careful to define a base (natural) language on all web pages. Otherwise, defining other languages can result in the entire page being read by a screen reader trying to use the pronunciation rules for the wrong language.

This can happen where the HTML tag isn’t given a LANG attribute, for instance:
<httml lang="en">

The problem arises if there is any coded “change” to the natural language on the page, because the “change” is, in fact, the first time that a language is defined. So everything after it may be pronounced as if it is in the “foreign” language. Continue Reading »

All eyes and ears will be on the Beijing 2008 Olympics website next year when the games swing into action on September 6th. I for one am very excited and hoping to get over there to see the real thing but if not will have to make do with internet coverage for up to date results of what is going on. Given the experience of the 2000 Sydney Olympics website sued by Bruce Maguire for being inaccessible the Beijing Olympics website will be under more scrutiny than it may expect and the word in many accessibility circles is “Will it be accessible and will I be able to access it”?

But of course it’s not just a question of if you can access a site if you are disabled. Internationalisation (also known as i18n) and localisation (also known as l10n) must also be taken into account to ensure ease of access for people from different cultures speaking different languages. Mobile access will also play a key role with people wanting to check results while on the move. This is even more important considering mobile access to the web is higher in Asia than the West given that lack of hardware and Internet connections.

In Part One I’ll be looking at the accessibility of the current site, in Part Two I’ll be exploring ease of access for international audiences and in Part Three I’ll be looking at mobile access.

But first, how does the site currently fair in terms of accessibility? Continue Reading »

For those with an interest in standards overall and not just accessibility the guys over at I18n Core Working Group at W3C have launched Planet i18n .

It gathers together posts from various blogs that talk about internationalization (i18n). While it is hosted by the W3C Internationalization Activity, the content of the individual entries represent only the opinion of their respective authors and does not reflect the position of the Internationalization Activity.

If you own a blog with a focus on internationalization, and want to be added to this aggregator, please get in touch with Richard Ishida.

I’m really pleased to say that I’ve been accepted into the Web Standards Project (WaSP) International Liaison Group (ILG).

Whilst always having an eye on making web sites accessible with a view to what’s going on globally, this gives me a great opportunity to roll my sleeves up and start looking at how standards work together to make the web more available regardless of who’s accessing, where and how.

Internationalization (referred to as i18n for short) looks at how to make web technologies work with different languages, scripts, and cultures. It’s a web standard, just as web accessibility and the mobile web are, promoted by the W3C as well as WaSP.

I’m looking forward to learning from the impressive list of people from around the world involved in ILG whilst contributing to both the group and everybody I work with on a day to day basis. Over the coming weeks I’ll be writing more about what i18n is and how it helps not just your users but also your business and is an integral part of good web design for all.

For more information visit:

WaSP International Liaison Working Group

W3C Internationalization Working Group

Internationalization Quick Tips for the Web, W3C

Over the last few months I’ve been closely watching the progress of the December 2006 United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This marks an exciting shift in the accessibility arena as it is the first time that accessibility is mentioned in an international human rights initiative. While the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) publishes technical guidelines on how to make websites accessible there has been no global movement to date that outlines the framework of what must be done.

Continue Reading »

Molly gave an excellent presentation that got a few people I spoke to involved in accessibility fired up. Her passion for the “world” in the world wide web reinforced the importance of addressing the needs of not only users with disabilities such as visual, motor, hearing and cognitive impaired, users with older browsers, dial-up, mobiles, PDA’s but also users from different backgrounds, cultures, religions and languages.

While we tend to focus on users with disabilities and different technologies perhaps not enough thought is given to users from other cultures, languages and religions who may interpret text, colours or images differently unless they are correctly presented and marked up. The message is clear:

internationalisation is a piece of accessibility

Some key accessibility guidelines from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that underpin optimising content for an international audience include:

• Structural markup - code the natural language of the page and any changes in the page using the LANG attribute. Screen readers rely on this.
• Clear and simple English - reduce the use of jargon and provide expansions of acronyms and abbreviations. This makes text more readable to users with cognitive impairments, users with screen readers and non-native speakers.
• Clear and simple page titles, link text and headings - relied on by screen readers and users with dyslexia and reading problems to both navigate and understand content.
• Appropriate use of colour and images - be sensitive to the meaning of colour and images in different cultures and provide clear alt text for symbols and icons. A red light in the China is a very different thing to a red light in the West!

Molly went on to say that some people feel that web standards, such as WCAG, inhibit creativity - something we hear people use a lot as an excuse to not make sites accessible. But as Molly put it, we need web standards to create a platform in order to move on, innovate and create while taking everyone with us.

It could be said that at the start of the Web it was by its very nature accessible. The addition of images, colour, audio, video, Flash, PDF have led the web astray but if we continue to advance these technologies together with web standards then we can ensure accessibility is borderless and work towards it being:

a globally accessible medium.

Read the full presentation of Internationalisation: Awakening the sleeping Giant

Read a transcript of the presentation on Muffin Research Labs