- From: Henk Wittingen <hwitting@inter.nl.net>
- Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 10:16:29 +0200
- To: W3C-WAI-Markup <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
After reading the whole thread about the LANG-attribute I'm getting puzzled more and more. So please clear up my three main questions below. 1. Is there a clear advice not to use more than one language in a page? 2. Does the working group still think the LANG-attribute is redundant in relation to the characterset code? 3. Does the workinggroup think the LANG-attribute is important for accessibility? Related to question number 1 it is wise to take in account that several European countries have more than one official language. Switzerland has four languages, Belgium has three and Finland uses Swedish beside the Finnish. This is only a limited example coming up to my mind when writing. As Jaap pointed out the HTML standard supports the mix of several languages in one page. I think that web-content can be compared to a multi-lingual Tourist Information flyer in many cases. In the margins one can sometimes find little flags or country abbreviations (in graphics, no ALT of course!) indicating the language used in a part of the text. For selective reading in a visual world that can be of help, but it is far insufficient when using screenreaders and voice output. Related to question number 2 it was Nir who made quiet clear that LANG-attribute and characterset are related mainly in one direction. To write a certain language properly, the characterset must support all glyphs used in that language. But many charactersets give multi-lingual support. UTF-8 is the best example for that while it supports English, Swedish, French, Greek, even Hebrew and much more. A page can contain more than one language but only one characterset. Let us not forget that making Greek or Russian names more readable in an English text they are many times written using the latin script although the original writing would be using the specific Greek or Russian characterset. Even though it would be much better if a screenreader could speak a Greek name in the Greek way and not the English way. The LANG-attribute (in combination with the characterset information) is the only means defined yet to facilitate this in an acceptable way. Related to number 3 can be added that the fact that nobody uses the yet defined standards is not the right (not saying: the wrong!) argument to lower a priority. Perhaps the conclusion could be that it is an Authoring Tool or an Education and Outreach topic. The whole problem is not mainly a matter of technique but more a matter of understanding the problems. So please do not push this very important topic aside using the American way of global thinking that all information is in English. While on the other hand giving the impression that other languages don't carry information that need to be accessible. I don't blame anyone for not knowing that many countries use more than one language. But take the advise and listen carefully, get well informed and think over all related facts before making any decision on this topic. met vriendelijke groet / with kind regards, Henk Wittingen - Ede gld - NL WWW: http://web.inter.nl.net/users/wittingen-ede E-mail: henk.wittingen@inter.NL.net (thuis/private) henk.wittingen@mail.ing.nl (werk/office) +31654605805@gin.nl (GSM-SMS/Subject only!)
Received on Wednesday, 28 April 1999 04:16:09 UTC