Hello everyone, my name is Joel (JD), I'm reaching out because I am interested in translating text and/or programming in Python for this group. I learned about this group through another Python developer and member, whom let me know about there being a need for translating items.

I've had about 5 years of Python programming experience, and I program every day in Python (I've learned some Angular but I need more practice). I studied Chemical Engineer, but I picked up and enjoy programming, and learning foreign languages.
I'm currently learning French, and am at an A2 level (according to my instructor). I grew up speaking Spanish and English, took Spanish for native speakers in high school, took German in college and studied it informally after college. After college, I taught myself Italian (through audio books, "learn a foreign language as you drive" albums, and translating catchy music for fun). After about 2 years of Italian, I decided to switch languages and take French lessons on iTalki.com . I decided to switch to French because I felt fairly comfortable with Italian, and thought that French was incomprehensible. 6 to 7 months of back-to-back lessons later, I can finally understand and communicate some French ! 

I'm interested in helping out because I have utilized text-to-speech services on written material, and have implemented some of these services such as IBM Watson's or Google Cloud Platform's text-to-speech services. I've implemented these text to speech services to read law literature such as a title from the California Code of Regulations, or laws from the California Penal Code. These projects, along with others and my interest of languages, made me interested in the intricacies of topics under natural language processing. I found reading law literature complex, because of complex formatting hierarchies (sections, titles, parts, bullets, tables, etc.) that exist, but nevertheless it's an interesting area. 

As such, I'm interested in contributing to translating text or in writing Python! 

However, I was wondering if I could get an intro on how to get started contributing, or if any translators could comment on this post and possibly introduce me to resources to get started?

I'm about to step-away from my computer for today, but I'm going to follow-up on replies tomorrow! 

Thank you so much, and I look forward to hearing from you all!

Hi Joseph,

Thank you for reaching out. I agree with you, contributing isn't and
shouldn't just be submitting code, comments, or translations.

It is contributing and helping remove barriers that have existed within
society for too long. It is helping remove technological, language, and
attitudinal barriers within society. It is helping make sure that no one
gets left out, and helping make sure that everyone, irregardless of
socioeconomic status or country of origin, has the same equal access and
opportunity that everyone else does. It is also placing yourself in the
end-users shoes and navigating the product as they would, and helping make
sure that the correct needs are met. It is working on a product that others
depend on.

I myself am not blind, but I am impacted everyday by a disability I obtained
from an accident in 2017. I am familiar with advocates such as Tony Coelho
or Yoshiko Dart, the Capital Crawl, or the ADA Act of 1990. I know about
some of the difficulties that people have faced in the past, and *I know
that I don't know* of all of the difficulties individuals with disabilities,
such as blind individuals, face today. As a result, I am here because I want
to learn about these difficulties and I want to contribute and help remove
them. I want to join and help remove any technological, language, and
attitudinal barriers that have existed within society for too long, and
because I want others to have equal access to technology.

As such, I am interested in learning more on contributing to this project.

Note, I am going to step away from my computer for today, but I will follow
up tomorrow.

Thank you once again

Best,
Joel