Localization QA Checklist: Reviewing a Translated Course Before You Publish

Questions answered by this guide

• ?What should I check before publishing a translated course?
• ?Which localization checks are automated and which are manual?
• ?What is the most common thing missed when localizing an eLearning course?
• ?Do I need to re-check accessibility after translating a course?

What you'll learn

• Run this once per language version, comparing that version to the source
• A11yCheck automates 10 mechanical source-vs-target checks; the rest of this list is manual
• The single highest-yield manual check is previewing every screen at 100 percent for clipped or overlapping translated text
• Player and navigation labels are translated in their own separate place and are the most commonly missed item

What's inside

Reviewers signing off a localized Storyline or Rise course before release

1. 01How to use this
2. 02Best practices
3. 03Common mistakes
4. 04Automated checks (A11yCheck Localization review)
5. 05Manual checks
6. 06Accessibility after localization

Why it matters

A localized course is a new deliverable. It can be missing slides, clip translated text, keep the source language in its navigation, lose a font, or fall out of sync with its voice-over, none of which show up in a translation review or in the source-language sign-off. Running a short, consistent pass per language catches these before a learner does.

Best practices

• Run this pass once per language version, comparing that version against the same source, and keep a separate record of what each language turned up.
• Let A11yCheck's Localization review do the 10 mechanical source-vs-target comparisons first, then spend your time on the manual checks it cannot make.
• Preview every screen at 100 percent size in the target language before anything else, clipped and overlapping translated text is the highest-yield thing you will catch by eye.
• Translate the player and navigation labels in their own location (Storyline: Settings, then Labels; Rise: the course Labels), separately from the translated slide content.
• Run a full A11yCheck Accessibility review on each language version's URL. The source-language accessibility sign-off does not carry over to a translation.
• Keep a short per-language glossary so you can check terminology consistency by hand, no automated check verifies it.

Common mistakes

• Signing off a translated course on the strength of a good translation review alone, missing slides, clipped text, and lost fonts do not show up there.
• Checking only the target course and never comparing it to the source, so dropped slides and missing media go unnoticed.
• Leaving the player and navigation labels in the source language because they are not part of the translated content export.
• Treating every difference between source and target as a defect, a localized course is meant to differ; the review looks for differences with a real consequence.
• Assuming the Localization comparison also re-checks accessibility. It does not; that is a separate review, run per language version.

Practical checklist

• AUTOMATED (A11yCheck Localization review compares source vs target): No target text is clipped where the source was not.
• AUTOMATED: Every source slide has a matching target slide, and vice versa, or the difference is explained.
• AUTOMATED: No target slide is left byte-identical to the source on real content (untranslated exact-match text).
• AUTOMATED: Where the source shows a date, number, or currency, the target slide has a comparable pattern.
• AUTOMATED: Text direction is consistent; a right-to-left target is treated as expected, not flagged.
• AUTOMATED: The target slide's fonts overlap with the source's (no silent whole-slide font substitution).
• AUTOMATED: A single source video or audio element matches its target counterpart in length within tolerance.
• AUTOMATED: The set of link destinations is compared between source and target.
• AUTOMATED: A single caption track matches between source and target on cue count and total span.
• AUTOMATED: Each slide has the same number of media elements in source and target.
• MANUAL: Preview every screen at 100 percent size and look for clipped, wrapped, or overlapping translated text.
• MANUAL: Player and navigation labels (Next, Previous, Submit, menu, quiz feedback) are in the target language. In Storyline this is Settings, then Labels; in Rise it is the course Labels.
• MANUAL: Non-Latin scripts (Cyrillic, CJK, Arabic, Thai, and similar) render in an embedded font that matches the design, not a system fallback.
• MANUAL: Dates, numbers, currency, and units are in a form appropriate to the locale, not just present.
• MANUAL: For right-to-left languages, the layout mirrors correctly and Tab order follows the visual reading order.
• MANUAL: Links open locale-appropriate destinations where a localized target exists.
• MANUAL: Captions and transcripts exist in the target language and read correctly, not just present as a track.
• MANUAL: Voice-over is in the target language, and timeline-synced animations or captions still line up with it.
• MANUAL: Every quiz question and answer option is present and translated; feedback layers are translated.
• MANUAL: Variables and dynamic text resolve, with no %placeholder% or untranslated variable text visible to a learner.
• MANUAL: Terminology is consistent with the glossary for this language.
• MANUAL: Text baked into images or screenshots has been localized or has a localized text alternative.
• MANUAL: Branching paths and interactions reach the same content they do in the source.
• MANUAL: Nothing in the localized content is culturally inappropriate for the target audience, and the learning intent is unchanged.
• ACCESSIBILITY (separate review, run per language): A full A11yCheck Accessibility review has been run on this language version's URL.
• ACCESSIBILITY: The course language is set for this version (screen readers use it to pick pronunciation rules).
• ACCESSIBILITY: Accessible names, alt text, and instructional text are in the target language, not left in the source.
• ACCESSIBILITY: Reading and focus order still make sense after any layout changes from text expansion or mirroring.

Frequently asked questions

Summary

A per-language pre-publish pass for a translated course, split into the 10 mechanical checks A11yCheck compares between source and target automatically, and the manual checks (text fit, player labels, fonts, locale formats, RTL, links, media and caption language, quiz parity, variables, terminology, cultural fit) that still need a human. Accessibility is a separate review, run it on each language version.