How to Tag Chinese, Vietnamese, and Albanian Text in PDFs for Screen Readers
Question details
The user needs to properly apply language tags to Chinese, Vietnamese, and Albanian text within a PDF so that screen readers can identify and pronounce the content correctly.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat / PDF Editors
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Optimizing a multilingual PDF document for accessibility, particularly when standard drop-down menus do not list specific languages.
- Observed behavior
- Screen readers mispronounce the text or remain completely silent because the specific language tags are missing, and authoring tools like InDesign or Acrobat fail to provide these languages as default tagging options.
Ensure you have a screen reader installed (such as NVDA or JAWS) and verify that the specific language packs for Chinese, Vietnamese, or Albanian are downloaded on your system to test the final pronunciation.
Manually Add Language Codes to PDF Tags in Acrobat
Bypass the default language dropdown limitations by manually entering standard ISO language codes directly into the PDF tags for specific text.
When your PDF editing software does not list a specific language in its default accessibility options, you can force the screen reader to recognize it by manually typing the ISO 639-1 language code into the tag's properties.
In Adobe Acrobat, navigate to View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes and select 'Tags' to open the document's tag tree.
Expand the tag tree and find the specific text tag (such as <P> or <Span>) that contains the Chinese, Vietnamese, or Albanian text.
Right-click the selected tag and choose 'Properties' from the context menu to open the Object Properties dialog box.
Click on the 'Tag' tab. In the 'Language' field, ignore the dropdown menu and manually type the appropriate ISO code (e.g., 'zh' for Chinese, 'vi' for Vietnamese, 'sq' for Albanian).
Click 'Close', save your PDF document, and test it using a screen reader equipped with the corresponding language packs to ensure proper pronunciation.
Create Accessible Multilingual PDFs Easily with WPS Office
Instead of manually fixing PDF tags in complex editors after the fact, you can easily set the correct text languages directly in your source document using WPS Writer before exporting it to a highly compatible PDF.
- 1. Open Your Document: Launch WPS Office and open your source document in WPS Writer.
- 2. Select Multilingual Text: Highlight the Chinese, Vietnamese, or Albanian text that needs specific language tagging.
- 3. Set Text Language: Navigate to the Review tab, click on 'Language', and select the appropriate language for your highlighted text.
- 4. Export to PDF: Go to Menu > Export to PDF. This allows you to generate a PDF document that retains language information for screen readers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my screen reader silent when reading Chinese or Vietnamese text in a PDF?
If the PDF text lacks the correct language tag, the screen reader may attempt to process it using your system's default language (like English). Because it doesn't know how to pronounce those characters in English, it often remains silent or skips the text entirely.
What language code should I use for Albanian in PDF tags?
You should use the standard ISO 639-1 language code 'sq' for Albanian text. You can manually type this code into the Language property of the specific PDF tag.
Can I test my PDF accessibility without using a screen reader?
While PDF editors have built-in accessibility checkers that can flag missing language tags, verifying accurate pronunciation strictly requires a screen reader (like NVDA or JAWS) with the relevant language packs installed.
