Less common elements Languages

你好...Hola...Hi...مرحبًا...नमस्ते...안녕...

The language of your content may change, but how does your computer know that?

Why it's important

To put it simply, screen readers and other programs need to know what language the content is in to properly render it.

Note: This page will be important for you if you teach a language course or if you use a foreign language in your class for another reason. If you do not, feel free to skip this page.

Guidelines

For languages to meet accessibility standards, use the following guideline.

Set the language

The content we write in Canvas, Microsoft products, and other technology is already set to have the language of the page as English (unless you have changed that). In some courses, we include text in other languages. This is necessary. You can't learn French without French being present on the page. In these cases, we need to let the screen reader know which language the text is in (see Success Criterion 3.1.2 Language of Parts).

Exceptions

It is important to note that there are exceptions for proper names, technical terms, words of indeterminate language, and words or phrases that have become part of the vernacular. In other words, you don't need to change the language to discuss L'hopital's Rule in Calculus or you don't need to change the language for phrases like déjà vu.

How to check it

Check to see if you have any non-English text (not borrowed words that English has adopted) in the content that you are sharing.

If there is another language on the page or in the file, each program has its own way of letting the screen reader know the language of the text. We'll get into how to check for this in language content in PDFs, Microsoft products, and Canvas in later modules.

How to fix this

Each program has its own way of letting the screen reader know the language of the text. We'll get into how to make language content accessible in PDFs, Microsoft products, and Canvas in later modules.

Languages review

Set the language: Ensure the language being used is properly marked for assistive technology.