Good morning #CoSo!
I think we might have a new team challenge to consider this month.
Last night I saw a new arrival struggling in Portuguese with the site's layout.
As we scale, we're going to need to translate that CoSo guide (and my visual aid for layout!) to other languages.
(In the future, an embedded translator, too, but baby steps!)
This would 100% help the site achieve greater reach, but it's an investment.
Would anyone be up for thinking through this translation project together?
In the super short term, if we could set up both documents outside of PDFs (i.e., as plain text docs somewhere on the site itself), they'd both be far easier for native translator software on new users' devices to translate into most any language, just like that!
But this would also be a great time to write a version of the guide for blind and low-vision users, to increase accessibility overall.
So... maybe our project could be imagined more broadly: How do we make CoSo accessible at scale?
@MLClark interesting... Not sure what I can do to help but I've got a bit of spare time atm if it's needed
@Zailrand Wonderful! Thank you. 🤗
I think we need the following:
1) To make the CoSo guide plain text.
2) To not only update whatever needs updating in it after all this time, but also to make it blind-user friendly.
3) To give the guide a dedicated page on #CoSo, so native translation software can do the rest for new users.
4) To share an editable version of aids like mine among translators, and create a wiki-styled database of multiple versions.
How does that sound to everyone? Doable?
@MLClark @Zailrand I agree that you might sometimes need to generate a version for screen readers, but that would eliminate audio for those who prefer it over text, and it would eliminate video for those who have difficulty reading. People with limited or no vision shouldn't be denied an interactive TOC or navigational headings. We should implement ARIA and WCAG across the site and the apps.
https://torquemag.io/2019/08/aria-markup-accessibility/
@peterquirk @Zailrand I agree with the second half but I'm confused by the first. Why would making a blind-user friendly CoSo user guide eliminate audio and video?
@peterquirk @Zailrand Yes, a plain text version for ease of translation on native language software. And while we're in there, super easy to add instructional materials to the guide for those who can't rely on visual aids. No elimination required.
@peterquirk @Zailrand At present we have a CoSo user guide that, in PDF with visual objects, isn't easily scalable to the needs of multilanguage and blind users. Shifting it to a dedicated page in a format that translation software can readily translate, and using the opportunity to improve the language for blind and low-vision users, was the essential point. It would be a step up!
That said, I wholeheartedly agree that making the site more navigable for blind users is a great next step, too!
@peterquirk @Zailrand I think we're all using different language around the same point.
I said plain text in contrast to PDF, to address the multilanguage users.
But when talking about making the doc more blind-user friendly, yes, obviously mark-up language improves the experience. I was primarily referring to the need to revise the content, the instructional language itself, to be less visually dependent. But the whole of the doc needs to be text-based *and* marked up.
Okay, back to my run!
@MLClark @peterquirk Also it's think about small achievable steps, not trying to do everything at once as we simply don't have the resources... Making everything work for everyone is the ideal outcome, but incrementally
@Zailrand @peterquirk That said, tackling the site's frontend to be more accessible could easily be a project for another group to strategize around this month, while we're adjusting the user guide and visual aid resources!
@MLClark @Zailrand @peterquirk plaintext can also be in version control to facilitate participation and validation.
$.02
@MLClark @Zailrand I apologize for rushing my answer. Like you I was rushing to get out the door for a run.
I find the built-in translator in Edge works fine for virtually any language to English. I assume the reverse applies. A user guide published in HTML rather than PDF should be immediately translatable. The Chrome built-in translator seems to work well too.
So these are important areas of concern for CoSo's growth re: accessibility.
Like we'd been saying, converting the user guide from PDF and embedding it on a webpage will fix part of the issue for folks from other language backgrounds trying to learn the site. (Translations of any visual aids still necessary, though.)
But if the site requires major markup and navigation-support changes to be screen reader friendly? That's a whole other issue to be dealt with separately.
@peterquirk @MLClark @Zailrand
Or XML rather which can be easily transformed to HTML, JSON, plaintext, PDF, etc. with different stylesheets. And markdown goes easily into XML. I personally don't like using markdown but this is a practical use case.
@peterquirk @Zailrand I was thinking about guide modifications from the content side, not the mark-up, so I completely see how the lack of clarity emerged. However, it did let us reach deeper issues, so that's great!
@peterquirk @MLClark @Zailrand
Awful? I wouldn't say that.
Press Esc (to defocus the status box) and ?
Keyboard shortcuts! This trick works across Google sites and many other websites.
@b4cks4w @peterquirk @Zailrand
Oh this is good. Multiple voices and experience sets makes things a heck of a lot easier.
I think as a collective it might be useful to gather thoughts on what to keep in mind as CoSo scales in user base. Not a list of demands! Just a working doc that lets us see what *we* can do to improve the experience, and what functionality gaps we need to be mindful of as the platform grows.
Shared Google Doc, maybe? Or other preferred multiuser workspace?
Have you tried an export from a PDF writer rather than a direct import?
@Zailrand @MLClark I don't currently have a licensed PDF writer like Acrobat. I've generally found Word's importer to be fairly robust, though fidelity may not be perfect. Visual fidelity was such a joke anyway in a world of two major paper sizes and an almost infinite variety of screen sizes. Adobe has now added "Liquid mode" to its PDF reader for phones. (Can you tell I despise PDF?)
@MLClark @Zailrand I've worked with translation teams that insisted on SGML and DITA tags.