Accessibility

What the site offers

A “Skip to content” link at the top of the page. Thirteen interface languages (French, English, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, Kiswahili, German, Hausa, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Italian), with a right-to-left layout for Arabic. Menus can be used with the keyboard; Escape closes them; the mobile menu keeps focus while it is open. Fields on the “Write to us” and “Contribute” forms have labels. A breadcrumb shows the page. Animations respect the system preference to reduce motion. Gold and terracotta text on light backgrounds has been darkened so it stays readable. The header is opaque, without a backdrop blur, so text stays sharp while you scroll, including when the page is shared to a television. The television’s own picture processing can still soften the image in motion.

What we do not claim

This page is not a WCAG conformance statement. We have not run a formal third-party audit and we do not claim level AA. Long dossiers (history, portraits) are written first in French; other languages carry a notice when the translation is automatic or incomplete. Some images have only a short alternative text. An empty slot (photo, audio) is a research gap: no generated file is presented as a Chadian voice or face.

Languages

The interface exists in thirteen languages (French, English, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, Kiswahili, German, Hausa, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Italian). Substantial content (sourced history, province pages, portraits) is first in French. A notice says so when you are reading a machine translation. Arabic displays right to left.

Report a barrier

If a page, form or file stops you from using the archive, write to contact@tchadmaculture.com or use “Write to us”. Describe the page, the browser and the barrier. We will look for an alternative (text, file, another format) where we can.

Checks carried out

26 October 2026, on the local preview. Keyboard: “Skip to content” link, menus, Escape, language pins, fields on “Write to us” and “Contribute”. Headings: one h1 per page. Images: alternative text on named cards; the footer logo is decorative. Audio: native player loaded on click, no autoplay before a gesture. Gold/terracotta contrast: 0 failures on the last Lighthouse run (to reconfirm in the Reviews measurements). Screen reader (NVDA, VoiceOver): no independent audit. This list is not a WCAG statement.

Date of this page

Last review: 26 October 2026. Contrast of gold/terracotta text, alternative text on named cards, grayscale letters, television mode, and the keyboard/form/audio checks listed above. A third-party WCAG audit has not been run.

Sharing to a television

If words become blurry or cut for 2 to 5 seconds when you share the screen to a television (Hisense, Cast), turn on television mode. The header no longer covers the text while you scroll, and lines are no longer rewrapped late. The television’s own picture processing (motion smoothing) can still soften the image.

Translation coverage

Four statuses, the same everywhere: (1) fully translated and human-reviewed — French only; (2) machine-translated, awaiting review — the other twelve interface languages, English and Arabic first; (3) menu-only — a page banner when the translatable share is too low; none of the 13 languages is “menu-only” as a language; (4) community language contributions — Sara, Ngambay and other Chadian languages via Contribute and the language centre. All 13 languages have 100% translatable coverage (automatic measure): that is not native review, and a page is never presented as “fully translated”.

• human-reviewed · reference — French only: reference writing, human-reviewed.
• machine — The other twelve interface languages are machine-translated, awaiting review. English and Arabic are the priority.
• menu only — A page banner when the translatable share is too low. None of the 13 languages is “menu-only” as a language.
• community contribution — Sara, Ngambay and other Chadian languages: recordings and translations via Contribute and the language centre, not by machine-translating the site.

Automatic measurement on the published site. The main criterion is translatable-text coverage: every text on the site (paragraphs, headings, lists, labels; header and footer excluded) must have a present translation (automatic measure; distinct from native or expert human review); only items that are not translated stay in French or their original language (proper names, ethnonyms, titles of works, quotations and references). A language is declared complete at 100% translatable coverage, and no banner is then shown. The overall percentage below also counts those kept items. French is the reference text.