I will weigh in as I use foreign languages quite frequently on the iPhone. One thing I have frequently found is the iPhone's mixup between Chinese and Japanese, because Japanese also uses Chinese characters as one of its alphabets. In fact, this happens quite frequently. And, unless you were a linguist, you would not be able to distinguish the difference. So I'd also chalk this up as a bug.
Thank you. Rajiv ----- Original Message ----- From: "'Janina Sajka' via MacVisionaries" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2025 6:23:55 PM Subject: Re: When iPhone selects the wrong TTS language O, I want it to switch, but I want it to switch appropriately. The surest way is to have web content correctly identified by metadata (think WCAG SC 3.1.1 and 3.1.2). Failing correct markup, a heuristic analysis should still be able to yield correct results in many cases. In the current instance we have a page coded with Latin letters. Pronouncing those with a Japanese TTS is bad heuristics--I assume the bug is looking at the domain TLD (sony.jp in this instance) and coming to the wrong conclusion that the content must be Japanese. Brad Snyder writes: > I don't see that there is any bug here at all. > Either you want VoiceOver to automatically switch languages, or you don't. > > > - Brad - > > On Oct 9, 2025, at 10:00, 'Janina Sajka' via MacVisionaries > <[email protected]> wrote: > > ???I guess I was hoping there'd be a more direct and temporary expedient. > > The problem with turning that off in Settings is that I then lose > multi-lingual support which I actually want most times. > > I suppose the conclusion is that multilingual support is just buggy? > > Brad Snyder writes: > > On your iPhone, go to: > > Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Speech, and navigate to the item > > labeled Detect Languages, and make sure off is selected. > > > > HTH. > > > > - Brad - > > > > On Oct 9, 2025, at 08:22, 'Janina Sajka' via MacVisionaries > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > ???-- > > What can one do when the iPhone starts speaking in the wrong language? > > Is there a way to force a TTS language change while in Safari? > > > > I've started pulling up sites in Japan because I'm planning my trip > > there in November. Annoyingly, VoiceOver has started speaking in > > Japanese content that I know is English. Clearly, there's a WCAG > > violation relating to lang settings, but that's beside the point at the > > moment. I suspect someone looking at the screen would have no problem > > reading the displayed English. How do I get VoiceOver to speak English? > > > > TIA! > > Janina > > > > > > Janina Sajka (she/her/hers) > > Accessibility Consultant https://linkedin.com/in/jsajka > > > > The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) > > Co-Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures http://www.w3.org/wai/apa > > > > Linux Foundation Fellow > > https://www.linuxfoundation.org/board-of-directors-2/ > > > > -- > > The following information is important for all members of the Mac > > Visionaries list. > > > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners > > or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > > > Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. 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You can reach mark at: > > [email protected] and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at > > [email protected] > > > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > --- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "MacVisionaries" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > > email to [email protected]. > > To view this discussion visit > > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/A64FF95F-0D61-4DE2-BF44-BE251221D862%40swbell.net. > > -- > > Janina Sajka (she/her/hers) > Accessibility Consultant https://linkedin.com/in/jsajka > > The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) > Co-Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures http://www.w3.org/wai/apa > > Linux Foundation Fellow > https://www.linuxfoundation.org/board-of-directors-2/ > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries > list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: > [email protected] and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at > [email protected] > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/aOfN9WuLQVsguMIG%40A11y.NYC. > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries > list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: > [email protected] and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at > [email protected] > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/25BED24B-15ED-4CDB-B0F2-3AA53264C950%40swbell.net. -- Janina Sajka (she/her/hers) Accessibility Consultant https://linkedin.com/in/jsajka The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Co-Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures http://www.w3.org/wai/apa Linux Foundation Fellow https://www.linuxfoundation.org/board-of-directors-2/ -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: [email protected] and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/aOg1-98lLiSXqINm%40A11y.NYC. -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. 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