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Synopsis

Foreign language support is still relatively incomplete for screen readers, but here are some things that can be done. Screen readers programmed in a non-English language may be able to switch to English easier than a screen
reader designed for a U.S. audience can switch to non-English.

  1. Use language tagging to mark content as English or non-English. This ensures both accurate pronunciation in screen readers and enables foreign language spell checking.
  2. Save documents with Unicode encoding whenever possible. This will ensure that text is transferrable between systems including mobile platforms.
  3. Users on a screen reader may need to purchase foreign language extensions or install additional files.

Unicode Support for Foreign Language

Whenever possible, non-English text (including special characters such as ©, †) should be inserted as is into a document encoded in Unicode.

What is Unicode?

Unicode is an encoding standard which assigns a numeric code to all characters across multiple scripts including Greek, Cyrillic, Asian scripts, Middle Eastern scripts, ancient scripts and technical symbols.

This standard allows computers around the world to exchange data across multiple languages consistently and without need for custom fonts.

Screen Reader Support

Other Languages

The comments below date from September 7, 2021.

Many screen readers including JAWS, NVDA and Apple VoiceOver include pronunciation engines for many languages such as Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Chinese and others.

JAWS Symbol File

If JAWS is unable to recognize a particular symbol in a document, you can append a Symbol File (.sbl) file which assigns plain text values to a Unicode character.

VoiceOver Adjust or Add Symbol Pronunciation

VoiceOver supports pronunciations for a wide range of technical symbols. However, you can add a symbol or adjust its pronunciation in the VoiceOver Utility in the Accessbility section of the System Preferences.

Language Tagging

See either the Language Tagging or Language Tagging in HTML to learn about tagging documents for different languages.

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Last Update: September 7, 2021