Translation tools

Modified on Thu, 12 Sep at 3:56 PM

Do you need to have a website widget to translate your website's text?

No — user's web browsers can do it automatically. When they browse a website in a language other than their own the browser translation function converts the text automatically.

If you have a translation tool on your website, it carries risk especially if there is clinical information on the website. In addition translation tools share data with third parties, e.g. Google, which can introduce issues around GDPR.

Although online translation tools can accurately translate individual words and phrases, they may not always be able to interpret the meaning of larger or more complex pieces of information.

Translating a GP website text

For a patient, it’s better if they use an online translation tool at a device or browser level rather than a website widget for two reasons:

At a device or browser level, every different website they go to in their journey, for example, the GP website and the online consultation tool, will be translated.
The patient will hold the risk of the information being translated inaccurately.

Each phone or browser tech company publishes instructions online about how to translate text in apps or change browser languages and translate web pages. We have information on our website with links to most browser translation instructions and we can add a link to this page on your website footer if you think this would be useful.