Bridging the Digital Divide

By Lucy Heavens

Access to technology is very limited for many people in this land of many tongues, and to become computer literate is no easy task for speakers of minority languages. Hope comes in the form of Translate.org, a remarkable non-profit organisation that produces Free and Open Source software in the country’s eleven official languages. They are the also the developers of Pootle, an online tool for the translation of South African languages.

Translate.org are funded by, amongst others, the Shuttleworth Foundation, and many of the programmes provided on the translate.org website are those used in the Open Source Ubuntu operating system created by Mark Shuttleworth.

This includes the Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, and the OpenOffice suite - complete with word processor and programmes for spreadsheets, multimedia presentations and drawing. All free to download in your South African language of choice.

Translate.org is actively involved in spreading awareness of the importance of mother tongue in learning and technology. It has been well established that when a child begins learning in his or her first language, that child is more likely to succeed academically, and is better able to learn additional languages. Studies have shown that learning in one’s mother tongue ensures a better fundamental understanding of the subject than those who learnt it in a second language.

South Africa has been slow to implement the country’s constitutionally enshrined policies of mother tongue education, yet for children to be enabled to become computer literate in their mother tongue is to significantly increase their chances in life.

Translate.org’s other valuable products for learning and work are the freely downloadable DejaVu font, and the South African keyboard, on sale for R150. Many South African languages, when written, include a host of symbols and icons that are unique in the world. This means that many languages cannot be correctly typed on a computer with regular fonts and keyboards. Translate.org's keyboard means any language from Venda to Afrikaans can, for the first time, be accurately typed.

The Afrikaans spell checker is another popular product. Spell checkers in all South African languages can be downloaded, but are not yet actively promoted, as they are not fully functioning. Nguni languages are highly conjunctive, with many words linking to create one word. With all the possible permutations, it becomes exceptionally difficult to create full word lists. They rely on volunteer translators to continually expand and enrich their services.

Recently Translate.org were recipients of the prestigious African ICT Achiever Award for "Top civil society/NGO to bridge the digital divide in Africa" for their work in breaking down the language barrier.

bigeyeddeer@yahoo.co.uk