CLF for the Internet - Official Languages

Rationale

Welcome Pages are key to initial communication, identification and navigation on all GoC Web sites, and must therefore be designed to facilitate these functions. The standard single screen size ensures all necessary elements are viewable without scrolling and provides immediate access to the full content of any Welcome Page. While the centre area of any Welcome Page is left open for customisation to suit the needs of the institution (or its programs and services), standardization of the screen size and placement of mandatory elements will enhance visual consistency across all GoC sites.

Interpretation

The official languages requirements applicable to welcome pages are located within the Treasury Board's Directive on the Use of Official Languages on Web Sites (Implementation Procedures). Specifically, for the welcome pages of sites of offices designated as bilingual, see section 6.1.1. b) and c) and Appendix A. For the welcome pages of sites of offices that are unilingual, see section 6.1.2 a) and Appendix B.

The sites of the offices of institutions subject to the Official Languages Act must reflect the official language obligations of the offices that use the sites. The standards ensure that these obligations are taken into account at the level of the Welcome page, which is, within the official languages perspective, an office's electronic service "wicket".

The standards set out above take into account the following factors:

• Offices designated as bilingual under the Official Languages Act are obligated to make an "active offer" in both official languages of their services and communications to the public. At a traditional service counter or wicket, or on the telephone, an active offer is normally achieved through the use of a bilingual greeting that lets members of the public know that at the office in question they have the right to be served in the official language of their choice.

• The English / Français buttons required on the Welcome page achieve the same purpose: they inform visitors to the site that it provides its services and communications in both official languages and offers them the choice of official language. Once the user has chosen the official language, the site gives access to content in that language.
  • For an office located outside Quebec
  • For an office located in Quebec

• The Web sites of unilingual offices or facilities are not required to post their content in both official languages as long as this is intended exclusively for the public served by that office or facility. That requirement may change if they post directly on their site content that is intended for the public in general; see Treasury Board's Directive on the Use of Official Languages on Web Sites.

In practice, it is highly recommended that a unilingual office wishing to post content which is intended for the public everywhere in Canada, to locate it on the institutional site, or on another bilingual site, and to refer to it via a hyperlink, rather than posting it directly on its own site.