Re: Hawaiian Diacritics

The proper use of the lang attribute on pages as well as on words, phrases and passage, allows assistive technologies like screen readers to properly detect and better pronounce mixed language web content.
Note that different screen readers support different numbers of languages.
You have a bit of a challenge in that I’m not seeing Hawaiian in the ISO 639-1 Language codes.
I do see ones for other Polynesian languages like Maorim, Tonga, Tahitian and Samoan, and it could be that as a temporary workaround, you could explore a reasonably close phoenetic language to improve pronunciation. I’ve heard enough Maori and Hawaiian that I’m aware there are some similarities but obvious differences like “wh” in Maori, and obviously that is an idiotic idea from a translation perspective, so take the suggestion in the spirit it’s meant – as a suggestion for helping address screen reader pronunciation.
The obvious better solution would be to get Hawaiian incorporated into the language codes, but that’s beyond the scope of your question.
Hope that helps a bit!

Mike

From: Ryan McCalla <rmccalla@hawaii.edu>
Date: Friday, May 6, 2022 at 12:53 PM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Hawaiian Diacritics
Hello, What are the best practices around accessibility and mixed language web content? I know screen readers do not pronounce Hawaiian words correctly. However, my team at the University of Hawai‘i is trying to compile best practices and recommendations
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Hello,

What are the best practices around accessibility and mixed language web content? I know screen readers do not pronounce Hawaiian words correctly. However, my team at the University of Hawai‘i is trying to compile best practices and recommendations with regards to the use of Hawaiian language in digital media. Our Communications Office has put together some recommendations<https://www.hawaii.edu/offices/communications/standards/hawaiian-language-considerations/>. I think we just want to verify that these are indeed the best practices for making the Hawaiian language accessible on the web.

We appreciate any input on this issue.

Thanks,

Ryan McCalla (he/him/his)
IT Specialist, Client Service and Operations Center
Information Technology Services
University of Hawai‘i
rmccalla@hawaii.edu<mailto:rmccalla@hawaii.edu> | 808-956-2170