HTML provides attributes for language information. “Language tags” are used to identify languages. The primary subtag can be supplemented with additional subtags for script, region, variant etctera (see the tutorial Language tags in HTML and XML) although it is recommended to keep them as short as possible.
The HTML specification also defines how language codes should be interpreted: user agents should favour an exact match, but should also consider matching primary codes to be sufficient. However, recent tests have shown that some screenreader and browser combinations interpret language codes differently: if there is no exact match, some screenreaders appear to fall back to their default language (which is set by the user), even if the primary subtag of a composite language tag is supported.
How can you test the test files below?
The idea is to record the default language (and other language related
options of the AT such as the option to switch between dialects in a
base language, as noted by David Poehlman), then to open each of the
test files and make a note of the language (possibly language variant)
that you hear.
The goal is to check whether there is a language switch if the language
of the page is different from the AT's default language and the
language attribute uses an additional subtag.
End-user tests undertaken in the BenToWeb project indicate that the following assistive technologies may have problems: older versions of JAWS (6.0, 7.10, 8.0), older vesions of SuperNova, ZoomText 9.0 (it is not clear whether ZoomText's Reader component supports automatic language switching) and HAL 2.04 (with Lynx).
You can send comments and test results to Christophe.Strobbe ( @ ) esat.kuleuven.be.
| Screen reader and/or browser | Default language | 005 (German) | 006 (American English) | 007 (British English) | 008 (American English) | 201 (French) | 202 (Canadian French) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JAWS 8 with Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 2 (Windows 2000) | American English | German | American English | American English | American English | (not tested) | (not tested) |
| JAWS 8 with Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 2 (Windows 2000) | British English | German | British English | British English | British English | (not tested) | (not tested) |
| JAWS 9 with Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 2 (Windows XP) | American English | German | American English | American English | American English | French | (Canadian?) French |
| JAWS 9 with Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 2 (Windows XP) | British English | German | British English | British English | British English | French | (Canadian?) French |
| JAWS 9 with Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 2 (Windows XP) | German | German | American English | British English | American English | French | (Canadian?) French |
Request for comments posted to WAI Interest Group and to WCAG Working Group.
TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/2dbcxl.