Language - Translations

Question

Is there a government mandate or minimum requirement for translations?

I know there all video content must be transcribed and have closed captions. What about translations into other languages such as Chinese, Korean, Hindi etc... ? For example, once a second-language population reaches a certain %, is there a requirement to provide translated content (be it webpages, downloadable documents, videos etc...)?

If so, how much? Or is it left to the organisation to determine?

Answer

In short - no, the Web Standards don't dictate any requirement for content translation to other languages. Rather they require that content that agencies publish to the web be published in a way that meets recognised accessibility requirements.

This doesn't extend to translation, other than requiring that the language used in pages be declared (e.g. lang="en-nz" for New Zealand English, or lang="mi" for Māori).

The question of translation will be a decision for the agency, based on business need.