Step-by-Step Guide to Translating WAI Resources

Have a look at our priorities

For suggestions on which to translate first, see Priorities for Translations.

Or pick a resource according to your preference

You are welcome to translate any current WAI resource that you think would be useful in your language.

The easiest way to find a resource to translate is to head over to the dedicated translations sitemap for your language.

We welcome new subtitles!

If you do not have the time to translate a resource, how about adding new subtitles to our videos?

Video Introduction, Perspective Videos, Stories of Web Users, etc. We have many videos to choose from.

You are very welcome to create new subtitles in your language, even if you do not intend to translate the page content.

When you have found a resource to translate, you must indicate your interest, and wait for a reply from WAI team. We’ll check that the file isn’t currently being translated by someone else, and that it isn’t about to be updated.

Please wait for reply from WAI team before starting a translation.

Recommended / quickest way

1. From the translations sitemap for your language, click on the “Volunteer to translate this page” link, displayed next to the resource you intend to translate.
2. It will automatically pre-fill a GitHub issue with some useful information.
3. Read and submit the issue.

Alternatives:

• Create an Issue in the dedicated “WAI Translations” repository.
• If you are not comfortable with GitHub, send e-mail to the publicly-archived WAI translations list using this e-mail template.

Initial setup

1. Log in to your existing GitHub account, or create one .
2. Get to the repository of the resource you will translate.
   • Near the bottom of each page on the WAI website, there is a “Help improve this page” box. The middle button is “Fork & Edit in GitHub”. That gets you to the repository.
   • If you have followed the recommended way to declare your intent, the link to the repository has been automatically added in the GitHub issue description.
3. You can directly work from there.

For further guidance on using GitHub to translate a WAI resource, follow the dedicated guide.

Translate the resource

• Refer to How to Translate a WAI Resource guide
  • If the page you are translating has videos, also refer to How to Create Translated Video Subtitles and Descriptions
  • If the page you are translating has images with text, also refer to How to Translate Images
• Commit your changes.

1. Open a draft Pull Request in the GitHub repository of the resource, with [IN-PROGRESS] at the beginning of the title.

2. After you submit the pull request, a Netlify preview will be generated so you can check your file and make edits.
   • At first it will say “👷 Deploy Preview for wai-repo-name processing.”.
   • When done, it will say “✅ Deploy Preview for wai-repo-name ready!” and a “Deploy Preview” link will appear.
3. Click on the preview link:
   • Check everything listed in Reviewer Guidance;
   • Eventually, commit some fixes;
   • At this point, if you encounter some technical problems, ask for help from WAI team.
4. When your auto-review is done, go to the next step.

Translations are reviewed before they are published.

1. Change the state of your pull request to “Ready for review” and change the beginning of your Pull Request title to [READY FOR REVIEW]
2. Communicate your Pull Request is ready for review in the GitHub issue created at step 2.
3. Review discussions take place directly in the GitHub Pull Request. Work together with reviewer(s) to:
   • fix issues;
   • accurately convey the meaning from the English version;
   • consider different dialects.

If you have any questions about the wording, please report them in the GitHub issue so that WAI team and other volunteers can help.

When the review is done, WAI team will:

• do some final checks;
• merge the Pull Request;
• publish the translation on WAI website.

Please note these steps may take some time depending on other ongoing priorities.