Translations

Offering content in multiple languages greatly improves accessibility. Translating your content allows more people to understand and engage with it, regardless of their spoken language. This is also essential for people with varied linguistic abilities. When translating your content, make sure you consider accessibility at every stage of the process. This will ensure that everyone can access and benefit from your content, regardless of their language background and ability.

Know your audience

To ensure that we never make assumptions about the needs of our users, especially those with diverse abilities, cultures, and identities, it is essential to conduct thorough research. This will enable us to understand and accommodate our users’ specific requirements, guaranteeing that everyone has access to the information they need.

People of diverse abilities, cultures, and identities should have the opportunity to use and access the information they require.

To help achieve this, your content should be:

• presented in plain and simple text
• translated into other languages as necessary
• published in a format that suits their needs and preferences.

We recommend contacting Multicultural NSW early and downloading the multicultural communications playbook to gain a clear understanding of how to provide great content to your audience.

Keep it simple

Ensure your message is clear, concise, suitable, and accurate. Provide a clear action for your audience and link to helpful, translated information.

Use simple language, avoid jargon, and keep sentences short. Simplicity in language and the use of images enhance the impact and comprehension of your message. Remember, good translation depends on the clarity and conciseness of the original message. The more complicated the original language, the tougher it is to translate effectively. Visit plain and inclusive language for more information.

Make it accessible

It's important to use a format that everyone can easily access to share your information. When you choose an accessible format, you ensure that your content can be used by people with different needs, like those with disabilities or those who speak different languages. Using accessible formats is about promoting inclusivity and reaching a broader audience, which makes your message more effective.

If publishing a document, take time to conduct an accessibility check. Use our document accessibility checklist

Tips for creating accessible multilingual content

• Use HTML: It's the most accessible and preferred option.
• Avoid PDFs: They can be very difficult to make accessible. If you must use PDFs, follow our PDF guidance to improve accessibility.
• Transcripts: Always provide transcripts, captioning and audio descriptions for video and audio content. Visit video and audio for more information.
• Use Unicode: Request translations in Unicode for compatibility with various languages.
• Link language: Use the same language for links as the page they lead to.
• Multilanguage capability: Translated web content needs a site that supports multiple languages. Use the W3C Internationalisation Checker to determine if your website can support multiple languages.
• Screen reader capability: Ensure text reads correctly on a screen reader, with logical reading order and proper alternative text descriptions. Visit accessibility testing to learn more.
• Reading order: Verify that text is displayed accurately, including top-to-bottom, right-to-left reading languages.
• Font choice: Choose a suitable font for the content.
• Intact text: Confirm that the text remains intact when added to a website or document.
• Formatting: Check and adjust line wrapping or breaks as needed.

Tips for developers

• Translated web content only works on a website that supports various languages. Different languages may have distinct text formatting, spacing, and direction. Check technical notes and external guidance to determine sites' language support capabilities.
• The W3C Internationalisation Checker can help developers understand if the website can support multiple languages.

Website translation tools

There are positives and negatives to integrating translation tools into your website. They can enhance accessibility by breaking down language barriers and making content inclusive to a wider audience. However, as these translator tools only translate word for word, key context and tone can be missed. This also poses a severe problem for those languages that read from right to left, or from the bottom to the top. 

If you do not have resources to complete the manual translation process, take the time finding a tool that meets your user's’ needs. Ensure whichever tool you choose is accessible. Visit accessibility requirements for advice about what to look for when buying accessible products.

Translate accurately

Accurate translation plays a vital role in improving accessibility. It ensures that information is conveyed clearly, allowing individuals from diverse linguistic backgrounds to understand information. Accurate translations effectively bridge language gaps, making information universally accessible. This fosters inclusivity and promotes effective communication, enabling a wider audience to engage with and benefit from your content. Accurate translation is a key factor in ensuring that your message reaches and resonates with a broader and more diverse audience.

Before sending your content to translators, check for things like clear fonts, headings, image descriptions, good colour contrast, and a well-structured layout. This way, users with different needs can understand your content easily, and it helps translators do their job accurately. It's all about making your content work well for more people.

Provide translators with all content for translation, including social media posts, descriptive alternative text for your images, closed captions, transcripts, contact information, and headings.

Once translation is complete, ask the translator to perform a check verifying the translation is accurate and the text is displaying and reading correctly. This check should be done for all content formats including documents, websites (both desktop and mobile display), apps etc.

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