You’ve put time into your website, customer guides, and training videos. But someone using a screen reader might struggle with your PDFs, while a customer who’s deaf might miss information in your videos.
Accessibility remediation services find and fix these barriers so more people can use what you’ve created.
For us as a Language Service Provider (LSP), accessibility belongs in the same conversation as translation. Your message needs to reach someone in a language and format they can understand.
Our guide to ADA-compliant translations explores that connection.
The audience is substantial. MultiLingual reports that 16% of the world’s population has disabilities, citing the World Health Organization. That includes people who may already be your customers, employees, or partners.
What Actually Gets Fixed?
The work depends on your content. A PDF might need properly labelled headings, descriptions for meaningful images, and a reading order that makes sense when read aloud. Your website might need clearer form labels or navigation that works without a mouse.
Videos often need accurate captions that include relevant sounds and identify speakers. Audio descriptions can explain important visual information that isn’t spoken. Sometimes you’ll also need alternative formats, something we discuss in our braille translation guide.
These improvements can help beyond their intended audience. Advanced Television reported that 80% of respondents in a five-country survey used subtitles at least sometimes. Think about someone watching your product tutorial on a noisy train.
Where Section 508 Fits
If you work with a federal agency, you’ll probably hear about Section 508. It requires federal agencies to make the information and communication technology they develop, buy, maintain, or use accessible to people with disabilities. That can affect the documents and digital products your business supplies.
The revised Section 508 standards incorporate WCAG 2.0 Level AA requirements, alongside other provisions. Before starting remediation, you’ll want to understand exactly what your contract requires and which deliverables it covers.
This is one reason government experience matters when choosing an LSP. We need to understand how your translated materials will be delivered and used, as well as what they say.
How The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) Is Different
You don’t have to serve federal agencies for accessibility to matter. The ADA protects people with disabilities from discrimination, including in services offered by state and local governments and businesses open to the public.
The Justice Department’s web accessibility guidance explains how those obligations apply online. The precise requirements depend on your organization, so treating every website as having identical legal obligations can lead you astray.
For your business, the practical question is whether someone can get information and complete a task. During translation, overlooked buttons or error messages can interrupt that experience. Our article on common website translation pitfalls covers related planning issues.
What Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Tells Your Team
When your team needs specific criteria to work toward the WCAG provide them. They address things like text contrast, keyboard access, and understandable navigation. WCAG is a technical standard, rather than a law by itself.
There are different versions and conformance levels. Your LSP should identify the appropriate target before work begins, based on your obligations and project requirements.For multilingual content,
every language version needs attention. Translated image descriptions, language settings, and captions all need checking.
Building those checks into your workflow follows the same thinking behind our tips for managing multilingual projects: agree on responsibilities early so details don’t fall between teams.
Getting Started Without Feeling Overwhelmed
You can begin with an assessment of your existing content, then agree on a repair plan. Automated tools help spot certain problems, but manual checks are needed too. After repairs, your LSP should retest the content and explain any remaining issues.
We’d start by understanding what your customers need to do, whether that’s submitting a form or reading safety instructions. Our advice on prioritizing web content offers a useful planning parallel.
Ask for clear deliverables, realistic timelines, and guidance for future updates. With accessible templates and regular checks, your team can keep improvements in place as your business grows.
If you’re looking for help with accessibility-related translation requirements, we’d love to talk.
Consultations are free and there’s no obligation. You’re in safe hands with us as we’re ISO 17100 and ISO 9001 compliant, have over twenty years of professional translation experience, and have earned the trust of organizations around the world.
