Guidance: Translating Web Content into Alternate Languages
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Guidance
Suggested Content to Translate
- Press releases
- Fact sheets
- Frequent questions
- Emergency preparation or response info for critical emergency situations, national or local, for example: hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters, a terrorist attack, significant spills, or other imminent threats or dangers to human health.
- Safety information involving an activity, business or community with a large non-English speaking population (ex. farming, fishing, construction, landscaping, pesticide applicators, painting, air conditioning technicians, dry cleaning, nail salons)
- Health notices, warnings, or issues of special concern to non-English speaking populations. (ex. asthma, indoor air quality, drinking water, lead poisoning prevention, lead in drinking water, pesticides, mercury in fish, asbestos, beach advisories, sun protection, solid and hazardous wastes, Superfund sites)
- Information on availability of grants, scholarships, fellowships, contracts, etc.
- Tool kits
- General program information
- Tips and "how to" information
Additional Guidance
Use your best judgment when determining materials to be translated and into which language based on the targeted audience. At the very least, translate executive summaries and/or fact sheets. It will help people to translate a summary because then they can decide if it applies to them and whether they must find their own local help to get it translated.
All translations must be peer reviewed for accuracy, as well as go through OPA product review. The Multilingual Taskforce will have a sub-committee which will be able to review translations.*
Spanish Translation Guidance
The translations should be in standard Spanish. A standard Spanish is one without regionalisms. There are some expressions that may be easily misunderstood in one country versus another.
As with any other foreign language translation, content must be peer reviewed for accuracy, as well as go through OPA product review. The Multilingual Taskforce will have a sub-committee which will be able to review translations.*
Written Spanish, especially for the Web, should not be low literacy. Traditionally, written Spanish is formal. Furthermore, our Web visitors tend to be very technically savvy. While the highly technical information can be in English, it would be helpful to translate just the intro, fact sheets or executive summaries for the more technical materials.
* This page will link to the Multilingual Taskforce Subcommittee membership list when it is available.
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Rationale
Alternate language web content does not have to be a mirror image of the English content. Each office should prioritize and provide some outreach information in additional languages to help people protect themselves from dangers but also encourage environmental stewardship. The specific language(s) should be determined by the topic and audience.
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See Also
Webcontent.gov: Spanish Language Style Guide and Glossaries for U.S. Government Web Sites
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Related governance documents
EPA
Related Policies
Related Procedures
Related Standards
Related Guidance
Non-EPA
None
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Full Metadata about this standard
Name Translating Web Content into Alternate Languages
Tracking number NT00000000
Type Guidance
Required or Recommended Recommended
Effective date 01/17/2007
Date approved 01/17/2007
Category Accessibility (Section 508), Writing and Style
Web Council review by 01/17/2009 (or earlier if deemed necessary by the Web Council)
Governing Policy Web Governance and Management (PDF) (4 pp, 339K, About PDF)
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