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?

@MLClark @Zailrand you talked about plain text and PDF formats.

@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.

@MLClark @Zailrand I've worked with translation teams that insisted on SGML and DITA tags.

@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