BRIDGENORTH
"A survivor-led organization
committed to ending sexual exploitation in Canada"
committed to ending sexual exploitation in Canada"
The Mission
What is BridgeNorth about?
BridgeNorth’s mission is to restore the inherent dignity and value of sexually exploited women and girls by meeting their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.
They help individuals experience freedom from sex trafficking in Canada through survivor-led support, prevention, education, and advocacy.
They help individuals experience freedom from sex trafficking in Canada through survivor-led support, prevention, education, and advocacy.
Job to be done
BridgeNorth receives funding from the Canadian government and one of the requirements for such funding is to have all consumer-facing materials localized in both English and French
Intake forms
First things first
We started by localizing (English into Quebec French) all consumer-facing intake forms, referral forms, and consent letters. This helped us build a vocabulary of appropriate terminology on how to address those who are referring and those who are being referred.
We did our best to keep the French version gender-inclusive, keeping both masculine and feminine versions where appropriate.
We did our best to keep the French version gender-inclusive, keeping both masculine and feminine versions where appropriate.
WordPress
Choosing the software
Studying how the website was built and structured in WordPress, we realized that all webpages were designed and built using a plugin called "Elementor".
WordPress allows multiple plugins to work on a website simultaneously, and we often use some of the localization plugins to organize and simplify localization work.
This time, the challenge was that there are no free plugins for localizations that would work with Elementor.
There is one suitable localization plugin, TranslatePress, but the full version with localization of SEO texts costs €7.99 monthly. The client didn't want to pay indefinitely for a plugin that they only going to use once.
WordPress allows multiple plugins to work on a website simultaneously, and we often use some of the localization plugins to organize and simplify localization work.
This time, the challenge was that there are no free plugins for localizations that would work with Elementor.
There is one suitable localization plugin, TranslatePress, but the full version with localization of SEO texts costs €7.99 monthly. The client didn't want to pay indefinitely for a plugin that they only going to use once.
"We'll have to localize this manually without any plugins because there are no suitable ones"
— Igor I., Business Manager
Translation, editing, and proofreading of all texts
All texts from all webpages were carefully collected, including SEO texts (titles, descriptions, alt-tags), and were translated, edited, and proofread by professional Quebec French translators with at least 5 years of translation experience.
There have been heated debates on certain phrases and terminology.
There have been heated debates on certain phrases and terminology.
Inclusiveness
There was a lot of debate between the French translators on how to make sure that the text speaks to both masculine and feminine audiences without making one feel inferior to the other.
There is a big movement in the French language (both in France and in Quebec) in the last few years on trying to "equalize" the feminine suffixes which in the traditional French grammar come in brackets after the masculine (example: un(e)). More and more people, especially in female-dominated industries find it inappropriate nowadays. Given that BridgeNorth is a predominantly female organization, we made this nuance a priority for our translators.
There is a big movement in the French language (both in France and in Quebec) in the last few years on trying to "equalize" the feminine suffixes which in the traditional French grammar come in brackets after the masculine (example: un(e)). More and more people, especially in female-dominated industries find it inappropriate nowadays. Given that BridgeNorth is a predominantly female organization, we made this nuance a priority for our translators.
Images
All images that contain text also have to be localized.
At this stage, designers/typesetters are involved.
At this stage, designers/typesetters are involved.
Even though this might seem straight-forward, we had to make sure to include the French version of the logo of the HotLine and the correct link to the French version of their website.
Additional Materials
What else is there?
On top of the content on the website, we had to translate the job descriptions (posted on Indeed), forms to fill in, Thank You pages, error messages, subscription forms and e-mails, and a bunch of other smaller stuff which has to appear in French on a French website.
How to make it work
The final step was to make sure the website works correctly
1. Full back-up
All website content was backed up because just in case any of the plugins give an error or if there is a mismatch in versions, the live website cannot be disturbed so that visitors have a flawless experience
2. Create a French version
We created a separate French sub-domain (www.bridgenorth.org/fr) and copied all the English content there
3. Upload the localized content (texts and images)
All the translated, edited, and proof-read content was uploaded to the website manually, line-by-line, protecting the hyperlinks, fonts, formatting
4. Linking English pages to French and back
A special widget was created and added to the bottom of all pages which allows switching between the English and the French version of the same page
5. Menus
Menus had to be recreated to show French pagenames and link to French pages
6. Testing
The team spent extra 5-6 hours testing all pages, images, links, menus, and forms, to make sure everything works flawlessly and as intended.
This final step allowed us to polish every small detail on the website.
This final step allowed us to polish every small detail on the website.
Now go try how it works yourself: here