Question 4: Does the Web page clarify natural language usage?

What does this mean?

Indicate changes in natural language -- spoken, written, or signed human language-in a document. Also, provide expansions of abbreviations and acronyms.

Why does this present a problem?

Identifying changes in the language enables text-to-speech screen readers and Braille displays to automatically switch to the new language to enhance pronunciation. When changes are not marked, the synthesizer will try its best to speak the words in the primary language it works in. Thus, a speech synthesizer that uses English as its primary language would pronounce the French word for car, "voiture", as "voter". Natural language markup also allows search engines to find text in a desired language.

What are the solutions?

1. Identify changes in natural language

Identify changes in the primary natural language of a document's text or in text equivalents.
For example, in HTML use the LANG attribute:

A great motto for living life is carpe diem -- seize the day!

TIP The International Standardization Organization (ISO) defines the language codes at http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/iso639a.html.

2. Expand abbreviations

Use the <ABBR> and <ACRONYM> elements to expand abbreviations and acronyms the first time they occur on a page.
For example:

<ABBR TITLE="association">assoc.</ABBR>

<ACRONYM TITLE="Labour Market Information">LMI</ACRONYM>
Providing the expansion in the main body of the document ensures everyone understands the abbreviation or acronym.
For example:
Labour Market Information (LMI) provides.... LMI is useful for...

3. Identify the document's primary natural language

Specify the primary natural language of the entire document in the <HTML> element.
For example:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">

<HTML lang="en">

What is the bottom line?

The bottom line, as stated in WCAG Guideline 4, is clarify the natural language being used, and transitions to and from other languages.