Project Description:
1. Need
While web accessibility is quickly becoming a priority throughout the world, there are few evaluation tools available for developers in any language other than English. A Spanish-language translation of WAVE will make a leading web accessibility tool available to Spanish-speaking web developers throughout the world.
2. Overall Goals and Objectives
There are two primary objectives for this project. First, create a high-quality Spanish version of WAVE. Second, develop a community that will support the continued internationalization and collaboration efforts of WAVE. In order to accomplish these objectives, this project is divided into five phases. The first three phases support Spanish translation efforts while the last two phases support internationalization and collaboration efforts. The phases are as follows:
a.Develop a framework that facilitates the translation of WAVE rules and the WAVE website.
b.Translate WAVE evaluation rules and supporting documentation.
c.Create a Spanish version of the WAVE accessibility evaluator.
d.Establish a mechanism for feedback and bug reporting.
e.Engage the international web accessibility community and refine the Spanish version of WAVE.
3. Unusual Features
WAVE (wave.webaim.org) is an accessibility evaluation tool that embeds inline accessibility feedback into web content. Unlike most accessibility reports that only identify a few accessibility errors, WAVE identifies accessibility errors, possible errors, and possible features, using a series of color-coded icons. It is one of the most popular web evaluation tools available. In fact, when doing a Google Search for any of the following terms: "web accessibility evaluation," "web accessibility tool" or "web accessibility validator" (search terms entered without quotes), WAVE is the top result. WAVE is used to evaluate over 2,000 pages a day, and many of these pages are located outside the US.
4. Potential for Future Funding
Once WAVE has been optimized to support internationalization, and with a Spanish language version available, there is a strong potential for the funding of WAVE translation into other languages. WebAIM has already participated in several conversations regarding the internationalization of WAVE with representatives from groups as large as the European Union. In addition to funding for translation, we anticipate that an international version of WAVE will probably result in further funding for the sustainability of WebAIM.
One of the primary objectives of this project is to develop an international community dedicated to improving the quality of WAVE. As the CPD positions itself for collaboration in Latin America, this community of participants will surely provide valuable information and resources. Although this funding will not go toward translation of WAVE into other languages, this would be a straightforward process for other languages such as Portuguese, French, Italian and German, extending the Center's potential for collaboration into additional countries.
