Hi all,

I'm not sure where to ask this question, so I figured I'd start here. 
The basic question is this:

What do programmers need to do for a screen reader to detect the 
language being used?

A group of blind interpreters and translators is working with a 
developer to make a computer assisted tool accessible. This type of 
software is a standard piece of equipment in the translation industry. 
In a nutshell, the software breaks the document into segments (usually 
sentences) so the translator can work with one segment at a time in a 
way that makes comparing the original sentence with the translation 
fairly easy. The software also remembers how segments were translated so 
it can show the translator similar segments as they come up in the same 
or future projects. In theory, all this makes life simpler for the 
translator, but that's another discussion for another day.

Anyway, the product is now actually very accessible, but one problem 
we're still having is that everything in the software is pronounced in 
one language. We would like for the content of the translation pane to 
be pronounced in a different language. When communicating with the 
developer, who has been extremely receptive, we've mentioned language 
tags, but he says this is not possible. So we're not sure what to 
suggest or where to direct him.

People on the list use different screen readers, so the solution needs 
to be about doing something in the software that tells the screen reader 
how to pronounce text, not the development of scripts or set files. The 
developer says he's tried communicating with screen reader companies but 
hasn't had great success.

So how can we help him help us with this?

Ana


    VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
Archived on the World Wide Web at
    http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
    Signoff: [log in to unmask]
    Subscribe: [log in to unmask]