Are there considerations for handling culturally sensitive content in automotive localization with DITA?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Cultural sensitivity is a crucial consideration when handling automotive content localization with DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). Different regions and cultures may have varying norms, values, and sensitivities that can impact how content is perceived. Here are some key considerations:

Cultural Awareness

Localization teams working with DITA need to be culturally aware and sensitive to the target audience. This involves understanding cultural nuances, idiomatic expressions, and potential cultural taboos. It’s essential to avoid content that might be offensive, disrespectful, or misinterpreted in the target culture. This awareness should guide both language translation and visual content choices.

Visual Content

Visual content, such as images, icons, and graphics, also plays a significant role in automotive documentation. Images that are culturally sensitive or inappropriate in certain regions should be replaced or adapted. For instance, gestures or symbols that are harmless in one culture may have offensive connotations in another. Metadata in DITA can help identify and manage such visual content for localization purposes.

Example:

Here’s an example of how DITA metadata can be used to manage culturally sensitive visual content:


<topic id="cultural_etiquette">
  <title>Cultural Etiquette Guide</title>
  <metadata>
    <source-language>en-US</source-language>
    <target-language>ja-JP</target-language>
    <instructions>Replace images with culturally appropriate alternatives for the Japanese market.</instructions>
  </metadata>
  <body>
    <section>
      <p>This guide explains cultural etiquette for international travelers.</p>
      <figure>
        <image href="gesture_obsolete.png"/>
        <description>A gesture considered obsolete in Japan.</description>
      </figure>
    </section>
  </body>

In this example, metadata specifies that the target language is Japanese (ja-JP) and provides instructions to replace images with culturally appropriate alternatives for the Japanese market.