By Eddy R.
8-14-00

You probably already know how important it is to make one's site usable and accessible, so I'll cut down to the point and tell you about another way to help make your site more accessible to a broader audience.

Use a Translator

The web is accessible to millions of people who speak different languages. Unfortunately, most of them are not able to speak other languages than their own. So, how can a web builder go about making his site accessible to others who speak different languages? By using a Translator!

There are many software titles designed to help with the process of translating information from one's language to another, however such software can be both, quite expensive and an overkill for a web builder who wishes to translate his work into other languages. What then can a web builder use?

Babel Fish

Babel Fish is a free, automatic translation service that allows one to translate information from one language to another. This service also has the ability to translate entire web sites from one language to another.

Web builders can use this service to make their web sites more accessible to people who speak languages other than their own. By providing a link to this service, web builders are not only making their sites more accessible but are increasing their site's chances of being recognized by a broader audience, which in turn means more success to the web builder and his site(s).

Machine translation produces reasonable results in many cases, but the results are not always as reliable as we would like them to be, at least not yet. Web builders who choose to use this kind of technology/service to make their work available to others, should make it clear to their audience that the results of using this service may not be the best, however this option will always be better than not being able to translate one's work at all.

Again, remember that the more accessible your work is to others, the more recognized it will be by a broader audience.