Generate multilingual alt text - an overview (video tutorial)

Overview

When serving images to global audiences, providing alt text in the viewer's language is essential for accessibility, but translating every image description manually is time-consuming, especially when handling large amounts of content. This demo shows how to use Cloudinary MediaFlows to build a multilingual alt text automation that automatically generates accessible image descriptions in multiple languages the moment an image is uploaded.

Video tutorial

Tutorial contents

This tutorial presents the following topics. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

The accessibility challenge

0:03	Managing alt text for images across multiple languages manually doesn't scale. Screen readers need meaningful descriptions, but translating every image description manually is time-consuming. You can use workflow automation in Cloudinary to automatically generate accessible descriptions in any language the moment an image is uploaded.

Understanding global accessibility needs

0:18	When serving images to global audiences, providing alt text in the viewer's language is essential for accessibility. This automation addresses the challenge of creating localized, accessible content at scale.

The multilingual flow

0:35	This workflow first generates an English description of the uploaded image, then uses Google Translate to create versions in multiple target languages, including French, Spanish, and German.

AI-powered image analysis in action

1:24	The flow uses AI to analyze the image content and generate a contextual description. This description is saved as the primary alt text in English, providing a foundation for all translations.

Automatic translation process

1:57	Google Translate automatically creates versions in French, Spanish, and German within seconds. This ensures consistent, high-quality translations across all target languages.

Final results and metadata

2:07	The image now has contextual metadata with the original English description and translations in all target languages, making it perfect for serving localized, accessible content worldwide.

Keep learning

If you like this, you might also like...

 

 

Check out the Cloudinary Academy for free self-paced Cloudinary courses on a variety of developer or DAM topics, or register for formal instructor-led courses, either virtual or on-site.