Multi-Language Support

Early in the project, community stakeholders emphasized the importance of multilingual functionality in the OC Navigator, particularly in non-threshold languages as there is less local information available to those communities. By increasing the language capability of the OC Navigator, more communities can access information and link to resources.

Translation continued to be a key priority emphasized by many of our stakeholder partners and was another major focus for the project during this period. We describe two related but separate efforts to successfully publish the OC Navigator in eight additional languages: translation localization with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and a bespoke build of a translation input system.

With Orange County Health Care Agency, we developed a translation plan that goes beyond one-to-one translation. Stakeholders serving multilingual and monolingual communities expressed the importance of localization, which is the process to address local cultural and nontextual aspects of a language. To accomplish this in eight languages, content was professionally translated and then reviewed by community stakeholders for accuracy, relevancy, and readability. To maintain sustainability of the OC Navigator, resource information like descriptions, eligibility, and other information subject to change were auto-translated using Google Translate API integration.

The OC Navigator is available in eight languages in addition to English: • The six threshold languages o Arabic

o Chinese

o Farsi

o Korean

o Spanish o Vietnamese

• Two non-threshold languages o Khmer

o Tagalog

Careful consideration was taken to maintain the contextual accuracy of project-specific terms such as “Community Engagement” or “navigator” required more careful thought with community reviewers; team members met with community reviewers to understand how best to be contextually consistent. First, content was translated by county vendors which was deemed inadequate upon internal review by Chorus staff members: some translations were too literal and would not make sense, and translation of project-specific terms like “Community Engagement” and “participatory development” were not contextually accurate. A new vendor was selected to ensure the accuracy and understandability of the website. AlphaOmega came highly recommended by the Chief Program Officer of Mental Health America; for each client, a memory base of unique terms, tone, and voice is created so that all translations are consistent.

Flexibility of the Chorus platform allowed us to develop a bespoke system to input, edit, and maintain translations in OC Navigator in two different ways: auto translation for content that is likely to change (e.g., resource descriptions) and manual translation for static content.

This system includes two ways for OC Navigator users to indicate that a translation is incorrect or suggest a change to a translation, whether the translation was manually or auto-translated. 1. On the global feedback form, users can note that a translation is incorrect on the website and suggest a change.

2. In addition, we included a clear notice on the pages that contain automatic translations that content was On the new suggest-an-edit page, users can suggest specific translation edits to a resource description, eligibility, and keywords. partially auto-translated to help address any possible inaccuracies which are common with auto translated text. We included a link to submit suggestions if any inaccuracies are identified and thos submissions can be reviewed with the staff who can determine how best to integrate. The OC Navigator In addition, we included a clear notice on the pages that contain automatic translations that content was partially auto-translated to help address any possible inaccuracies which are common with auto-translated text. We included a link to submit suggestions if any inaccuracies are identified and was set up to have the ability to accept both manual and automated translations, so if there is an issue those submissions can be reviewed with the staff who can determine how best to integrate. The OC with a particular auto-translation, staff can overwrite it as needed with a manual translation fix so the Navigator was set up to have the ability to accept both manual and automated translations, so if there accuracy can improve over time and use. is an issue with a particular auto-translation, staff can overwrite it as needed with a manual translation fix so the accuracy can improve over time and use. Figure 3.2.6. Language Selector Users of the OC Navigator will be able to select the language they prefer on the top of every page. Languages are written in the language for easier navigation for non-English speakers.

Users of the OC Navigator will be able to select the language they prefer on the top of every page. Languages are written in the language for easier navigation for non-English speakers.

Static content (highlighted for demonstration purposes in purple) have been professionally translated through Orange County Health Care Agency and vetted by the OC Navigator stakeholder representatives. Dynamic fields (highlighted yellow) such as resource name, description and other details, are auto-translated.