Big issue! I just got the word Doug Wakefield of the Access Board, this morning. At least for federal websites, which is what we were talking about, so presumably true for the rest of the 508 standard. Any foreign language that is made available on a US government website will be covered under section 508 for accessibility. Meaning, that alt text must be available for all images of text - in the language it is portraying, etc. In other words, avoid the use of images of the font, it should be use the actual unicode or ascii code for that particular language. (There is information on this in the Internationalization area of the W3C website) The font for the language must be made available to the assistive technology devices used. Where the text is character based, Japanese and Chinese, alt text of comparable content of the image, must be provided. Apparently, screen-reader's Braille Language Tables, are not standardized across the differing vendors machines. The Braille Language Tables are mapped-to the high-bit ascii characters. The safest way to ensure accessibility for Braille displays is to have the high-bit ascii text available in the page. (This info is from a Braille expert at the Library of Congress, Judy Dixon) Katie Haritos-Shea 508 Coordinator / Webmaster, CIW NTIS/Fedworld Department of Commerce 5285 Port Royal Road NTIS WebLab for Accessible Design Room # 2025 Springfield, Virginia, 22161 ph 703-605-6426 fax 703-605-6826 mailto:kshea@fedworld.gov mailto:kshea@ntis.fedworld.gov
Received on Wednesday, 14 February 2001 11:42:30 UTC