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WCAG 2.0 In Other Languages

Submitted by Tom on Tue, 03/03/2009 - 15:08

Today the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative has announced that several authorized WCAG 2.0 translations are being developed. You can review the currently available translations.

Three months after WCAG 2.0 became the official recommendation, the current list of translations contains 17 languages. This does not mean that currently 17 translations exist. Some of the listed languages are notification of intents, and some are unofficial volunteer translations, which will have to be translated. Translating WCAG 2.0 and all related documentation is an immense job.

The excitement of the new WCAG 2.0 only reaches those who can read and understand English. While we are hoping that WCAG 1.0 will be replaced with WCAG 2.0 in the different country's legislation, first it has to be ensured that people will have access to relevant documentation in their own language.

Last year I was teaching a WCAG course to a group of blind professionals, who had a very good working knowledge of the English language. Still, we have struggled a lot with the language, because WCAG 2.0 is relatively difficult to understand. None of the students had the documentation available in their own language.

I think there is lot's of great work being done around the translations, but I wanted to point out that it will still be a long time until all the necessary documentations will be available and can safely be integrated into local legislation.

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