Comments are being sought on this article prior to final release. Please send any comments to www-international@w3.org( subscribe). We expect to publish a final version in one to two weeks. [search keys: qa-choosing-language-tags]

This tutorial was updated to incorporate changes made to BCP 47 by the recent publication of RFC 5646. Changes to BCP 47 include the introduction of extended language subtags, and the addition of ISO 639-3 language subtags, bringing the total number of subtags in the registry to almost 8,000.

Translators should consider retranslating the whole tutorial. [search keys: article-language-tags]

In order to help the community provide accessible multimedia, W3C made public it's internal Multimedia Accessibility FAQ. The FAQ provides some practical advice on: What do I need to do to make audio and video accessible? How do I get a transcript for my media? How do I do captions? Where can I get more information? W3C's formal guidance on accessible multimedia is provided in Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. (2009-10-08)

On 1st October, Unicode 5.2 was released! The data files, code charts, and Unicode Standard Annexes for this version are final and are posted on the Unicode site.

For Unicode 5.2, the core specification is no longer just a delta document applied to the book; instead, the entire core specification,with all textual changes integrated, will be available on the Unicode site. As of this announcement, the first five chapters are available; the other chapters will follow soon

For full details about what is new or changed in this release, see the version documentation for Unicode 5.2.

Thanks to the Spanish Translation Team, Spanish Translation US, the following articles have been translated into Spanish.

Codificación de caracteres para principiantes(Character encodings for beginners)
Configuración de codificaciones en aplicaciones de autoría web(Setting encoding in web authoring applications)

[search keys:  qa-what-is-encoding qa-setting-encoding-in-applications]

The IETF has published RFC 5646, an update of Tags for Identifying Languages. This specification obsoletes former RFCs 4646, 3066 and 1766.

RFC 5646 makes it possible to use over 7,000 three-letter ISO 639-3 language codes, in addition to the 2 letter codes that have been in use for some time. It also introduces 220 'extended language' subtags, mainly for backwards compatibility.

It continues to be best to refer to this specification as BCP47. This is a non-changing name and web address that points to the latest relevant RFCs.

The Internationalization Working Group at the W3C is working on an article to help users choose language tags, given the various types of subtag that are now available, and the sheer number of subtags.

You can look up language and other subtags in the IANA Language Subtag Registry.

(Richard Ishida has provided an

for searching the registry that also provides advice for choosing subtags, and allows you to partially validate a hyphen-separated language tag.)

WAI has published an updated User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0 Working Draft with changes in the "Ensure that the user interface is operable" and Glossary sections. UAAG defines how browsers, media players, and other "user agents" should support accessibility for people with disabilities and work with assistive technologies. WAI encourages you to review UAAG 2.0 and submit any comments. See: Call for Review: UAAG 2.0 Working Draft updated e-mail, User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) Overview. Please send comments by 9 September 2009. (2009-07-23)

Thanks to K. Wiśniewski the Getting Started article "Language on the Web" has now been updated in Polish. [search key:  gs-language]

Język witryn internetowych

Relationship between Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is published as a W3C Working Group Note. See also: Web Content Accessibility and Mobile Web: Making a Web Site Accessible Both for People with Disabilities and for Mobile Devices introductory page, Shared Web Experiences: Barriers Common to Mobile Device Users and People with Disabilities. (2009-07-09)