Judge: web sites for health - support group guidelines - how to produce

	1.0 How to produce:

		1.1 Trust and reputation 1.2 Details of the organisation 1.3 Purpose of the organisation 1.4 Associated organisations 1.5 Funding sources 1.6 The way the information is written 1.7 Non-English language material 1.8 Descriptions of conditions and treatments 1.9 Medical research 1.10 Personal experiences 1.11 Communication 1.12 Links to other sites 1.13 Data protection 1.14 Copyright 1.15 Terms and conditions 1.16 Disclaimers 1.17 Kitemarks 1.18 Advertising 1.19 Interactive facilities 1.20 Other quality guidelines

1.7 Non-English language material

If your site is targeting groups with a first-language other than English, it might be appropriate for information to be provided in those languages as well.

Translating information into other languages is not simple.

There are Web sites offering automatic, computer translation but:
(a) they only translate small amounts of text;
(b) they only cover a few languages, usually the common European languages.
It needs a human translator.
Proper translation is more than just changing words, for example:
(a) a literal translation of the English topic may not exist in some languages;
(b) the translator needs to understand what the topic means to the people speaking the other language.
The Department of Health recommends that 'back' translation is carried out on all translated materials, which means:
(a) a different translator translates the final draft back into English to check that the meaning is correct.

You must consider your ability to set up and manage foreign language content and whether you have the funding to do so.

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© Copyright for this site is held by Contact a Family and the Information Society Research and Consultancy Group, School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences, Northumbria University. Site published February 2003. Last updated October 2006. Review date October 2007.