en
Conference presentation
Open access
English

A Self-efficacy Approach to Assess the Effectiveness of Web Localisation and Accessibility Training

Publication date2018
Abstract

In order to ensure that multilingual web content is accessible to everyone, including those with functional diversity, we need to encourage an 'accessibility thinking' among future localisation professionals. However, to the best of our knowledge, most training institutions do not teach yet the needed technical competence on the matter. Dublin City University in Ireland and the University of Geneva in Switzerland were two of the few exceptions in the last two years, as they offered a Master's course on localisation which included the acquisition of basic accessibility knowledge and know-how as one of the main learning outcomes. With a view to assessing the effectiveness of such an accessibility-enhanced learning programme, we conducted an exploratory study with the postgraduate students enrolled in the module, at both universities. By adopting an action research strategy, we administered a scientifically validated questionnaire built around the concept of self-efficacy at the beginning of the web localisation module (week 6 of the course) and at the end (week 9). As described in prior work (Doherty and Kenny, 2014), the construct of self-efficacy is understood as an individual's confidence in his ability to control thoughts, feelings and actions to achieve a desired outcome in a given context. Within the framework of our study, therefore, the main goal was not to measure the skills students had, but to collect their judgement of whether those skills could help them to perform 12 different localisation and accessibility related tasks in a real life scenario. We observed that, although their confidence levels regarding the identification of accessibility issues increased considerably after 6 hours of training, the time allocated to HTML and accessibility practice in particular was not enough to achieve a high level of effectiveness. These findings appear to support the need for an integrated approach to the teaching of localisation, where the localiser's competence would be at the intersection of translation, HCI and advanced computer literacy and engineering competences (Torres del Rey and Rodríguez Vázquez, 2016). Apart from its immediate pedagogical applications, we believe our study could also have practical implications for the web localisation profession in the long term, as these additional skills could prove essential for the highly competitive localisation market.

Keywords
  • Web accessibility
  • Web localisation
  • Self-efficacy
  • Localisation training
  • Localisation competence
Citation (ISO format)
RODRIGUEZ VAZQUEZ, Silvia, O’BRIEN, Sharon. A Self-efficacy Approach to Assess the Effectiveness of Web Localisation and Accessibility Training. In: 1st International Conference on Translation and Cultural Sustainability: Foundations, Fundamentals and Applications. Salamanca (Spain). 2018.
Main files (1)
Presentation
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
  • PID : unige:112485
391views
89downloads

Technical informations

Creation2018/12/17 15:48:00
First validation2018/12/17 15:48:00
Update time2023/03/15 15:18:39
Status update2023/03/15 15:18:39
Last indexation2024/01/17 04:35:17
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack