Accessibility
Accessibility of what we deliver.
A notice that cannot be read is a notice that was not delivered. What the translated file does, what your source carries into it, and how to report a barrier.
Commitment
Language access and disability access.
Two sides of one problem. A document that reaches a reader in their language but not in a form they can use has not reached them.
Agencies buying translation are usually working to accessibility requirements of their own: Section 508, WCAG 2.1 Level AA, or a state equivalent. Translation is a point where compliant material quietly stops being compliant, because the work passes through layout, export, and a content system on its way back to you.
The standard we work to.
For web deliverables that is WCAG 2.1 Level AA. For documents it means tagged structure, real text rather than an image of text, and a declared language. Where your source file cannot support it, you hear that before delivery rather than after, with what we saw and what will not survive.
What we deliver
Accessibility of the translation you receive.
A translated document that arrives as a flat image of a page has undone whatever accessibility work you did on the English. Delivery is where a language-access vendor either helps or quietly hurts.
The structure of your source comes across.
- Headings stay headings, lists stay lists, and table header cells stay table header cells. The reading order of the translated file follows the reading order of the source.
- Text is returned as live text (selectable, searchable, reflowable), not flattened into an image. Send a tagged PDF and you get a tagged PDF back.
- Alt text you supply is translated along with the rest of the document.
- Right-to-left scripts and CJK line breaking are set so the translated file reads and prints the way the source did.
The language is tagged, which matters more here than in English.
For web deliverables we return content with correct language attributes, so a screen reader switches voice and pronunciation instead of reading Spanish or Vietnamese with an English engine. Where a passage stays in the source language inside a translated document (a form name, a legal citation, an address), that passage is marked too. For document deliverables we set the document language. If you tell us your CMS strips attributes on paste, say so and we will give you the text in a form that survives it.
We flag what your source will carry into the translation.
Some accessibility problems are inherited. A scanned form is an image of text in every language. An untagged PDF is untagged after translation. Tables used for visual layout, images with no alt text, instructions that depend on color, and form fields without labels all reach the translated file intact. Where we see these, we tell you what we saw and what will not survive translation, before delivery.
Remediation is a separate job. We flag what we see before delivery; the decision and the work stay with you.
Report a barrier
Tell us what you hit.
If anything we send you is hard to use, a report goes to a person. We acknowledge every one within 5 business days.
What helps us fix it.
- The file and the language, or a description of it if sending it is awkward.
- What you were trying to do, and what happened instead.
- What you were using to read it, if you know.
- Whether it stopped you completely or only made the task harder. Both are worth reporting.
A screenshot helps and is never required. Asking someone to send a picture of a visual problem is not a reasonable condition for fixing one.
What happens next.
Within 5 business days you get a reply from us with one of three things: a fix already made, a date by which it will be, or a plain statement that we cannot solve it yet and what the workaround is in the meantime. If the barrier stopped you getting information you needed from us, tell us what you needed and we will send it another way while the fix is in progress.
Alternative formats.
Anything we send you can arrive another way on request: plain text in the body of an email, an accessible word-processing file, or large print. Tell us which format suits you and we will use it for anything we send you afterwards, without your having to ask again. If you need this information in a language other than English, name the language and we will arrange it.
- contact@civictranslation.comSubject line “Accessibility” routes it on arrival.
- Within 5 business days
- San Francisco, CA
- Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Pacific