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Promoting the Welsh language

Why it’s important

CDPS conducted user research with public sector employees in Wales, and among the key findings were:

  • there is strong support for promoting the Welsh language
  • the blockers that prevent this happening are mostly practical: lack of budget, people, tools and guidance

Welsh language content in Welsh digital services shouldn’t simply be a matter of translating English content into Welsh. Direct translation might be technically accurate but can sound odd to Welsh speakers, who would often phrase things differently.

We say this from direct experience: our own organisation’s name, “Centre for Digital Public Services” does not directly translate well into Welsh. If we had considered this early on, we would have chosen something different.

What it means

Teams working on services for Wales should try to:

  • Keep an eye on Welsh language data published in the Welsh Government’s Annual Population Survey.
  • Conduct parallel service design strands in both Welsh and English, if budget, time and capability allow. Welsh content and services designed from the outset by Welsh speakers will be clearer, and present a better user experience, to Welsh speaking users than those designed by English speakers and then translated.
  • Make sure that user research for the Welsh language service design work is also conducted, recorded and analysed in Welsh - then translated to English later.
  • Make sure Welsh / English language options and controls displayed by digital services are obvious and accessible to all users.
  • Consider use of Welsh language in behind-the-scenes processes that aren’t necessarily visible to users of services. How should Welsh be used in data collection? In setting strategy? In sharing best practice? In governance? In budgeting and procurement?

Of course it won’t be possible to do everything in Welsh, all the time. It remains a minority language. But as public sector workers in Wales our role is to promote its use; so we should proactively seek to make use of it, and design with it, at every opportunity.