2019-09: Internationalize CCCApply to Spanish for ESL/Spanish-Speaking Users

Owned by Patricia Donohue
Last updated: Nov 01, 2019
5 min read
Request No.2019-09
Date of RequestJanuary 1, 2019
Requester(s)

CCCCO - Barney Gomez
CCCApply Steering Committee 

Application(s)Standard, Noncredit and Promise Grant, IA
Section / Page

All pages

Steering Hearing DateAPPROVED 
Proposed Change to Download FileN/A
Proposed Change to Residency LogicN/A

User Story Summary

As a...I want...for the purpose of...
As an ESL/Spanish-speaking student applying  to one or more California Community Colleges, I need a fully-translated version of CCCApply in Spanishso that I can complete the application feeling confident that I understand each component as I navigate through the process.
As a California Community College or District  administrator  or staff member, I need a fully-translated version of CCCApply in Spanishso that I can support ESL/Spanish-speaking applicants complete the application and feel confident that they understand each component of the process and are ready for the next step towards Enrollment. 
As the CCCApply Product ManagerI need all application pages, components, and footer linked pages - including auto-generated emails, supplemental questions, to be fully-translated to Spanishso that the entire experience before, during and after the Standard, Noncredit, Promise Grant or International application workflow process is completely translated to Spanish for ESL/Spanish-speaking applicants - including the post-application communication emails, student satisfaction survey, and Proceed to MyPath transition. 

Problems / Issues

As of July 1, 2019, all four CCCApply applications are only available (mostly) in English, serving only English-speaking applicants in the  and thus a large portion of our student population may have completed an application in a language that is not their first/primary language.  Not having a fully-translated version of CCCApply creates a clear barrier 

Accessibility Review of 2016 - Identified through 508 Compliance review that the current version of CCCApply Application were not compliant with screen readers and other visual-impaired technology.  CCCApply had been using the Hover Help to provide spanish language translation and additional onscreen help information to ESL and/or Spanish only readers and speakers.  State allowed us to keep the Spanish Hover Help with condition that we would convert to a different format for translation using a different method in any new versions of CCCApply.  (Note: English hover help would be restricted to text input fields only until any new version of CCCApply was developed.) 

CACCRAO Issue #5: CCCApply poses challenges for students whose first language is not English – and it’s not just Spanish that is needed – many colleges named a number of different languages that were needed and that the toggle switch does not work effectively for students – especially our under-served populations and ESL students whose computer skills are minimal.


When the OpenCCCApply applications were developed, the decision was made to not build a separate Spanish application because based on the feedback from the colleges that were subscribing to the XAP Spanish application, students weren't using that version; instead they were having a friend or family member help them complete the standard english application. A solution was to implement Spanish translations of the "Hover Help", which could also be easily nationalized with other languages down the road, easily. Unfortunately, per the 508 accessibility audit of 2015, our implementation of the Hover Help translation is NOT accessible. Therefore, if we want to translate the application to other languages in the future, we will have to find another method and/or create fully translated versions of the current application. 


Proposed Solution


Internationalization in CCCApply Apps (Spanish first, outsource)

  • Export all text from CCCApply > Outsource for quote 
  • Build Library of Translated Text > Accessed through browser settings


According to our translation vendor:

“Typically, Spanish is translated either into Spanish Spain (or Castellano), Spanish Mexico or Spanish LATAM. Latin American Spanish is used for all Central/South American countries, as there are only very small variations based on the country (idioms, slang, etc). Of course, translations can always be tailored based on end-user needs, and we can use linguists from a certain locale if requested.”

We will adopt the "Castellano" dialect.

Other design decisions include:




Internal Notes < to be removed >

Per Josh on the implementation internationalization for Apply, specifically for Spanish.
Below is what will be required to get this in place. It's the same idea for what we will be doing for OpenCCC, but since Apply is on a different technology there is a bit more entailed:
- We would need to setup the i18n lib for our frontend.
- We would have to go through every single line of text in apply and
 replace it with a code.  This part will be very tedious and time
 consuming, but not actually very hard.  Eg.  replace "My
 applications" with "my.applications".
- We would create a lang-en.properties file that contains the keys and
  the english version of the text.
- We would need to send the english version of the file to an outside party that would translate it to spanish and we would store it in a lang-es.properties file.

I went ahead and put this information in this JIRA: https://cccnext.jira.com/browse/OPENAPPLY-5673

In all honesty, I think this JIRA is groomed and could be ready to prioritize when you are ready.


Schedule & Deadlines

Proposed Schedule 

DateRequirementsWho?Notes
Nov 1Meet with Sean Keegan to discuss accessibility review and suggestions/advice for solutions to oddities Patty  &Dawn
Nov 14

Deadline for ALL CCCApply, IA AND BOG Applications English text - including approved change requests pending, if possible. Submit to team for CODING 
This includes:all missing, problems, issues rectified - and everything is ready to code in Apply, BOG, IA

Patty / AmandaOA-7138, OA-7139, OA-7140
Nov 15Coding starts by teamApply Team
Nov 27Files are sent to Vendor for translationDawn
Dec ?Work with Vendor on back and forths and Glossary of Terms (proper names, specific terms, etc.)Patty / Amanda / Daw
Jan 10Code Freeze - Regression TestingDawn / Team
Feb 15Pilot Release TBDInfiniti / Apply
Mar 15Prod Release TBDInfiniti / Apply


Get all English language text reviewed by end of ? December? 

Dependencies, Risks and/or Reporting Requirements?


Question

Yes

No

Which data field(s)?

What/How?

Would this change affect an existing question or data field on the Standard Application?
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Would this change affect an existing question or data field on the International Application?
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Would this change affect an existing question or data field on the Promise Grant Application?
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Would Account (OpenCCC) data be affected by this change?
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Does the question or data field align to an MIS reporting requirement now?
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Does this change affect any other state or federal regulations or requirements?

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Would this change affect existing residency logic?
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Would any other data fields be affected by this change?
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Would students users be affected by this change?
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Would colleges be affected by this change? 
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Would the Download Client be affected by this change?
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What other tech center web services will be affected by this change?
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i.e., Glue staging table?  Multiple Measur
Other dependencies?



Other implementation considerations?



Supporting Documentation

DescriptionFile TypeURLNotes
In-House Research for CCC Assess project: InternationalizationConfluence - Internal Use Only/wiki/spaces/CCCAS/pages/752355112017
In-house Research:  Internationalization ImplementationConfluence - Internal Use Only/wiki/spaces/CCCAS/pages/2676818322017
Xap CCCApply Guide in SpanishPDFCCCApply Guide in Espanol