Translating WAI Resources

Thank you for your interest in translating resources from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

You are welcome to translate any WAI resource. For suggestions on which to translate first, see Priorities for Translations below.

Translation Instructions

Scope:

Translator background — we prefer translators to be:

To avoid overlapping work:

If you want to translate a WAI resource:

  1. Check if that resource is already published and listed in All WAI Translations.
    (You can also check if someone else is working on a translation, or we will check for you. If you want to: Search in the WAI Translations e-mail list archives for “Intent to Translate”, the document title, and your language.)
  2. Get a W3C account if you do not already have one. (This will allow us to associate your translations with your W3C profile.)
  3. Send an e-mail: Indicate your interest in translating the resource by sending an e-mail to the WAI translations list using this e-mail template.
    • WAI staff will send you an e-mail with instructions when the resource is ready to be translated.
      Please wait for e-mail from WAI staff before starting a translation.

We encourage you to keep up on related translations work by subscribing to the WAI Translations mailing list.

Translator Information

Detailed instructions are in the Translation Instructions wiki page.

Translation Agreement

By submitting a translation, you agree:

Reviews

Translations will be reviewed before they are published.

This policy is based on Internationalization Links, which provides some background.

Translations can include:

Cannot include:

Updating Resources

When the English version of a resource is updated, we will inform translators what has changed, and request that translators update their translation. If original translators do not respond before we need the update, we will invite others to update the translation.

In some cases, we will add the updated English to the translation while awaiting an update. If the changes are substantive, the translation may be removed until an updated version is provided.

W3C Translations Information

More information is available in W3C Translations and in W3C Intellectual Rights FAQ, particularly under the questions starting with can I translate one of your specifications into another language?

WAI Translations Mailing List

You can see past messages from the WAI Translations List Archives.

There is also a broader W3C Translators list. To subscribe: e-mail to w3c-translators-request@w3.org with subject: subscribe, archive: W3C Translators List Archives.

Priorities for Translating WAI Resources

You are welcome to translate any current WAI resource that you think would be useful in your language. The lists below are suggested priorities.

  1. High priority introductory resources
  2. High priority WCAG resources
  3. Main navigation overview pages
  4. Popular awareness and education resources
  5. Other priority resources
  6. To be updated

High priority introductory resources

High priority WCAG resources

Main navigation overview pages

If you translate these pages, then users will get the main navigation in your language. Usually we will wait to change the navigation until all of them are translated.

Popular awareness resources

Other priority resources

There are many more WAI resources available for translation.

To be updated

The following pages will be updated. You might want to wait to translate them until after they are updated, or be prepared to update your translation. To get announcements when they are updated, see Get WAI News and subscribe to the WAI Translations mailing list, per above.

TR & Authorized W3C Translations

Web pages at URIs that begin with www.w3.org/TR/ (for “Technical Report”) follow a different process described in W3C Translations.

Most translations are informative and unofficial. In cases where standards translations are meant for official purposes, they may be developed as Authorized W3C Translations according to the Policy for Authorized W3C Translations. Generally only completed W3C Recommendations and Working Group Notes are candidates for Authorized W3C Translations, including the WAI guidelines. The authorized translations policy is designed to ensure transparency and community accountability in the development of authorized translations under the oversight of W3C.

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