Accessibility: the next frontier for localization
Well, hello there. How nice to see you.
Welcome to Dispatches, by Alpha CRC - a monthly newsletter giving you an overview of what's been on our radar over the past few weeks. In this month's issue, we look at the incoming European Accessibility Act, what that means for documentation, and how model context protocol could represent a potential leap forward for localization technology.
Preparing for the European Accessibility Act
The European Accessibility Act (EAA), coming into force this June, sets new standards for digital inclusion by requiring all consumer-facing digital documents, like PDFs and brochures, to be fully accessible for people with disabilities.
This means organizations must ensure their documents are properly structured, tagged, and tested for compatibility with assistive technologies. While accessibility has traditionally been seen as an afterthought in document creation processes, as of June 2025, non-compliance will put businesses at risk of legal penalties and significant reputational damage.
Of course, that isn’t to say that there isn’t opportunity to be found here. Improving accessibility standards means businesses will be able to engage a global audience of over 1.3 billion people living with disabilities much more easily than ever before.
The technical foundations of EAA compliance for PDF remediation
The humble PDF has played a significant role in the business landscape for years now, mainly due to their reliability, portability, and consistent appearance across devices and platforms. While editable formats such as Word documents can be unpredictable as they move from computer to computer, PDFs preserve fonts, layouts, graphics and interactive elements exactly as intended. This makes them an ideal format for official forms, contracts, manuals, and reports.
Yet their significant benefits can also mean unique challenges for accessibility. Unlike HTML web pages, PDFs are often static and visually oriented, requiring deliberate remediation to be accessible. The new EAA regulations require businesses to produce PDFs compliant with internationally recognized standards:
WCAG 2.1 AA: These guidelines provide detailed criteria for making web content accessible, covering text alternatives, keyboard navigation, readability, and more.
PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility) Standard: This ISO standard specifically addresses PDF accessibility, focusing on document structure, tagging, and metadata to support assistive technologies.
Achieving compliance involves several key technical steps, which together form a process called PDF remediation.
How model context protocol (MCP) will transform localization technology access
If you were at LocWorld earlier this month, you might have been impressed by memoQ's proposed 'Agent M', an assistant that would make interfacing with the popular TMS a simpler process for project managers.
Our very own Ken Ming Chang, AI and technology guru, talked to us about the technology behind MCP, and how it bridges the gap between conversation and technology.
Model context protocol (MCP) is a standard that connects LLMs to APIs, enabling users to interact with services, tools, and data through natural language prompts without needing to understand the underlying technical requirements.
Traditionally, when using an API, requests to the endpoint need to conform to the data structure defined by the endpoint developers. This information is usually found in documentation, and people with development knowledge can send requests and use the API. However, many potential users lack the technical knowledge to understand these structural requirements, making APIs inaccessible to them.
MCP solves this problem by acting as an intermediary layer. Here’s how it works:
A user makes a request to an LLM using natural language, describing what they want to accomplish.
The LLM determines which API is appropriate based on the request.
The MCP server provides the necessary information for the LLM to formulate the required request structure.
The properly formatted request is routed to the selected API.
The API response is processed by the MCP server.
The LLM receives this processed information and responds to the user in natural language.
This workflow enables anyone who can communicate in natural language to access sophisticated APIs that would otherwise be beyond their reach.
As Alpha CRC continues to develop more specialized localization tools, MCP servers will further technology democratization, allowing our clients and internal language teams to leverage these capabilities even without technical expertise.
Learn about MCP applications and implementation considerations
Are you falling victim to the glossary trap?
Our founder, Isabelle Weiss, has taken a moment this month to look closer at the effect that glossaries are having on our translation processes.
Traditionally, glossaries are seen as one of the most effective ways to ensure term consistency across localization projects. As the LLM-powered translation boom continues to grow, we’ve been seeing arguments that the glossary is only going to become more important – a way to help stamp your unique brand voice on machine-translated content.
Yet what constitutes the golden standard of ‘glossary’ or ‘termbase’ continues to divide (but hopefully not conquer). Ask two ontologists to create a glossary for a company based on an existing corpus, and there’s a strong chance that you’ll receive two different lists.
In her blog, Isabelle asks whether glossaries, which are classically seen as an indispensable tool that empower linguists to ensure consistency, have transformed into more of a cage.
Do they hinder more than they help? Potentially. While there will very much be a time and place for a good glossary (that adjective is doing a lot of heavy lifting there), it’s worth asking ourselves whether we’re playing it too safe, limiting creativity and the linguist’s voice simply because we’re too afraid to take a risk.
Read Isabelle's full blog here
Happy Birthday, Carmello! Our favourite chameleon turns two this month
I can't believe it - Carmello, the Alpha Games mascot, has been with us for two years now. After making his debut in plushie form at ChinaJoy 2023, the little green guy has been making a name for himself, especially in Asia, where our Japanese Line subscribers were treated to a series of comic strips designed to teach people useful English phrases. Last year, he also appeared as the wild card in our Alpha Games card game (which you can win by entering the monthly BigAsk Quiz from GlobalSaké —for growth’s sake).
It seems like only yesterday that Carmello was but a twinkle in our eye (eyes? Do we at Alpha Games share one collective eye? You decide). It is with much joy that I announce we've been working on something a little special to celebrate his birthday. Take a look below.
Produced in collaboration with Alpha Studios, this marks our little Carmello's jump to the world of animation. It almost brings a tear to the eye. Even if Edward O'Keefe says that he can't figure out where Carmello's eyes are...
We hope you enjoyed seeing Carmello's antics in action. This is just the beginning for our little green guy - please look forward to seeing more from him soon.
And with that, you've reached the end! Thank you for all of your support - we hope to see you again next month, for our next issue of Dispatches.
Jack Simpson
Marketing Manager
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