Translation, Multilingual Communication and Accessibility

AI can translate in seconds, simplify a heavy text and rewrite a document for different readers. These are real strengths, as long as you understand what a good translation actually is and where caution is needed. In this lesson you will learn to adapt and not merely translate, to write in plain language, to check critical translations and to make your content more accessible.

After messages, meetings and documents, we now look at one more transformation: changing a text so that more people can understand it, whether they speak another language, read with difficulty or use assistive technology.

Marc and the customer from abroad

Marc, the plumber, has a customer who is a recent arrival and speaks limited English; she reads Spanish more comfortably. He needs to explain the maintenance of her new boiler and the steps to follow if something goes wrong. He could paste his explanation into a translation tool and send the result. But is that enough? Probably not: a literal translation of "bleed the radiators" or "pressure gauge" may be technically wrong, and the instructions affect safety.

Translating versus adapting

A translation conveys meaning from one language to another. An adaptation goes further: it considers the reader, the culture, the register, the units and the purpose. When you prompt, say what you want:

• Who reads it: a customer, a business partner, an official.
• Level of formality: many languages have formal and informal address; choose explicitly.
• Variants: the target language may differ by country (vocabulary, spelling, formats). Name the country or region.
• Local conventions: dates, number formats, currencies, units, address formats.
• Terms to keep or fix: product names, technical terms, a glossary you provide.
• What not to translate: names, codes, legal references, brand expressions.

A ready-to-use prompt: translate and adapt

Translate the text below from [source language] into [target language, specifying country or variant].
Reader: [e.g. a customer with no technical background]. Register: [formal or informal address].
Keep the meaning exactly; do not add or remove information. Use these fixed terms: [glossary, e.g. "pressure gauge" = ...].
Do not translate: [names, product codes, legal references].
Adapt dates, units and number formats to the target country.
After the translation, list in a table the phrases that were ambiguous or hard to translate, with the choice you made and an alternative.
Text:
[text]

The final table is a valuable safeguard: it shows you where the translation involved judgment, and where a native speaker might disagree.

Reading a translation with caution

AI translation is often fluent, which makes errors harder to see. The risks are greatest in a few situations:

• Safety instructions: a boiler, an electrical installation, medication, machine operation.
• Contracts, quotes and legal or regulatory texts: small word choices change obligations.
• Medical, financial and official documents.
• Texts with idioms, humor or cultural references.

Some useful checks: ask for a back-translation into the original language and compare it with your text; ask the assistant to list the points that may be misread; and, for anything important, have the translation reviewed by a qualified translator or a native speaker. If the text has legal value, a sworn or certified translation may be required: check the rules that apply to your case.

Plain language

Complex texts exclude people: those who read slowly, who are tired, who are not fluent in the language, who have a cognitive or learning difference, or who are simply busy. Writing in plain language benefits everyone. Nadia needs to explain a new leave policy to all staff, including some who joined recently and read English as a second language. She asks the assistant to simplify it.

Good plain-language practices you can request:

• Short sentences, one idea each.
• Common words instead of jargon; explain unavoidable terms once.
• Active voice, and the action first ("Send the form before 5 May").
• Clear headings and numbered steps for procedures.
• The most important information at the beginning.

A ready-to-use prompt: simplify without distorting

Rewrite the text below in plain language for [audience, e.g. all employees, including people who read English as a second language].
Rules: sentences under 20 words, common words, active voice, key action first, numbered steps for procedures, a short summary of three lines at the top.
Do not change the meaning, the numbers, the dates or the obligations. If a sentence cannot be simplified without changing its meaning, keep it and flag it.
After the rewrite, list the points you simplified that I should check against the original.
Text:
[text]

Accessible versions of your content

Accessibility is about making content usable by as many people as possible, including those who use screen readers, captions or other assistive technology. AI can help you produce the pieces, but it cannot check that the final result really works.

• Image descriptions (alternative text): describe the image's purpose and content in a sentence or two. An assistant that can analyze images may propose a description; you must check that it is accurate and relevant to the context.
• Structure: ask for clear headings, lists and short paragraphs, and use real heading styles in your documents rather than just bold text.
• Alternative formats: a text summary of a chart, a transcript of an audio, captions from a transcript (reviewed by a person).
• Reading levels: provide a short and an extended version of the same information.
• Plain link text: "Download the leave form" rather than "click here".

For authoritative guidance on accessibility, the Web Accessibility Initiative of the W3C (w3.org/WAI) publishes widely used recommendations.

Bad use versus good use

Bad use	Good use
Sending a translated safety leaflet without any check.	Translating, back-translating, listing ambiguities and having a native speaker review it.
Asking to "simplify" and letting the tool drop conditions or deadlines.	Forbidding changes to numbers, dates and obligations, and comparing with the original.
Accepting a generated image description such as "a chart" for a key figure.	Writing a description that states what the chart shows and why it matters.

Your turn: translate, simplify, adapt

Exercise. Take a short text from your work (a customer instruction, an internal notice, about 150 words, containing no confidential data). (1) Write a plain-language version using the simplify prompt and check that no number, date or obligation changed. (2) Translate it into a language you can read at least partly, with the translate-and-adapt prompt, then ask for a back-translation and compare. (3) Write alt text for one image or chart of yours.

See a solution

For Marc's boiler instructions, a good plain-language version is: "1. Look at the pressure gauge once a month. 2. If the needle is below 1 bar, call me. Do not open any valve by yourself." The simplification kept the numbers and the safety instruction, and added no new advice.

On the back-translation, a typical difference is "call me" turning into "contact the company", which is not wrong but is less personal; or a technical term translated with a more general word. The point of the check is to catch changes in precision: where one appears, fix the glossary and re-run.

Example of alt text for a chart: "Bar chart showing monthly boiler call-outs from January to June; the number rises each winter month and drops sharply in April." It states what the chart shows and why it is there.