Fwd: Outside Research that could be shared with us Re: [w3c/wcag21] Statement of partial conformance - Language (#243)

I got this email from the AGWG about a request for an addition to WCAG 
that they want to send to Silver.  The person who started the discussion 
has research that they are will to share about the accessibility of 
localization of international website.

I think this is consistent with the goals of Silver and is something we 
should give consideration to.

See the thread below.  I have edited the message to remove some of the 
WCAG 2.1 discussion.

Does anyone have an opinion either way before I get in touch with the 
sender?  Ugh, it came through Github, so I will have to track him down 
through that interface.

jeanne

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:  Re: [w3c/wcag21] Statement of partial conformance - Language 
(#243)
Date:  Thu, 19 Oct 2017 16:17:30 -050

      > However, despite the fact that we always advocate for web
     accessibility as a joint effort, the localisation industry still
     believes that they should not be necessarily accountable for
     rendering the web content they manipulate and create accessible (or
     even for identifying potential accessibility issues and reporting
     them). If a W3C accessibility recommendation would consider the case
     of multilingual/localised websites, it is likely that industry
     stakeholders would feel the pressure to get informed and receive
     training.

​Recognizing the problem statement as a real problem, I still wonder 
aloud if the technical specification that is (or will be) WCAG 2.1 is 
the right place to address this problem. As David has already pointed 
out, conformance claims are on a per-page basis, and not further 
evaluated as to source of content (original versus localized).

I can appreciate the localisation industry's current stance then, as 
"accessibility" is both content and delivery, yet these localization 
efforts often do not have control over all of the pieces required to 
ensure that the content *AND* functionality remains accessible. 
Additionally, if their contracts do not stipulate this deliverable, they 
are perfectly within their rights to take the stance they currently hold.

      >I could send you reports of our research work on the topic of
     accessibility in the multilingual web, if you are interested.


I am sure that a significant number of us would be very interested in 
seeing that​ research, including a few other W3C groups currently 
working under the WAI domain (Research Questions Task Force, Silver Task 
Force, Education and Outreach Working Group). If it is possible to share 
that material, then it would be greatly appreciated.

JF

On Thu, Oct 19, 2017 at 11:20 AM, srodriguezvazquez 
<notifications@github.com <mailto:notifications@github.com>> wrote:

     Thanks for your remark, @joshueoconnor
     <https://github.com/joshueoconnor> I understand why you may believe
     that benefits would be minimal. Still, please bear in mind that
     there are many levels of localisation, and page
     functionality/content may differ greatly from one language version
     to another in certain cases.

     I do not know if you have already made up your mind regarding this
     issue, but I'd like to argue that if the particular case of
     multilingual or localised websites could be at least mentioned in
     the new WCAG 2.1, I believe there would be an immediate impact at
     least in terms of awareness among multilingual communication
     engineers within the language industry. In turn, this would
     contribute, in the long term, to an increase in the number of
     accessible websites worldwide.

     The language industry, which encompasses website localisation and
     multilingual web management services, has registered the highest
     growth rate of all industries in Europe two years ago. Worldwide,
     its size was already estimated at USD 31.5 billion back in 2011.
     Localisation professionals manipulate web content everyday (most
     global companies, for instance, localise product and
     services-related web pages). However, despite the fact that we
     always advocate for web accessibility as a joint effort, the
     localisation industry still believes that they should not be
     necessarily accountable for rendering the web content they
     manipulate and create accessible (or even for identifying potential
     accessibility issues and reporting them). If a W3C accessibility
     recommendation would consider the case of multilingual/localised
     websites, it is likely that industry stakeholders would feel the
     pressure to get informed and receive training.

     I could send you reports of our research work on the topic of
     accessibility in the multilingual web, if you are interested.

     Thanks again.

Received on Friday, 20 October 2017 15:36:42 UTC