With the Right Approach, AI Could Close the Gap in Digital Accessibility

AI can help your organization deliver a more accessible experience to every website visitor. Here’s what to look for in an AI-based digital accessibility solution.

The gap in digital accessibility is real. Just 3% of the world’s top one million websites are accessible to people with disabilities — even though one in five people globally lives with a disability. In fact, accessibility barriers can be so pervasive — and disruptive to the user experience — that 80% of people with disabilities have taken their business elsewhere because of poor accessibility.

Most of the solutions available today can help narrow the accessibility gap, but lack the necessary combination of scalability and human expertise to close it entirely. Automation-only tools can resolve many common accessibility issues, but are unable to find or fix issues that require human subjectivity (for example: automated tools can detect the presence of image alternative text, but cannot tell whether it’s accurate).

And while manual audits alone can uncover some of the more complex accessibility issues, their static nature (each audit can only measure a website’s accessibility at a point in time) makes it difficult to keep pace with the constantly changing nature of most websites.

It’s a puzzle that many organizations struggle to solve — and why we believe the best approach is one that blends the best of human expertise and automation. Newer AI capabilities may accelerate and improve accessibility efforts, and when combined with human expertise, just might transform the user experience for people with disabilities.

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As you consider different ways to incorporate AI and automation into your organization’s digital accessibility strategy, here are three things to keep in mind:

1. Leverage AI to find — and fix — problems faster.

AI has shown the potential to transform almost every industry — including digital accessibility. And while there are a wide range of accessibility solutions on the market — from automated tools that can find and fix common accessibility issues to labor-intensive, expensive manual audits — there is also room for improvement.

In our work with thousands of companies, we’ve found our automation can detect up to 70% of common accessibility issues — and fix two-thirds of them. However, advances in generative AI and Large Language Models like GPT-4 have created new use cases for AI-based automation.

Recently, we conducted a pilot study to measure the ability of generative AI to enhance the work of human experts. In it, we found that AI could reduce the time required to assess and correct a complex accessibility issue — such as determining whether a link is clear and accurate — by up to 10x.

2. Go beyond compliance to deliver a winning customer experience.

Being able to fully participate in modern life means that people must be able to accomplish certain tasks online, such as viewing digital content or shopping. Even when a digital experience is considered “compliant,” the user experience may still be challenging or burdensome for people who rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers or keyboard navigation.

Following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) on things like color contrast and closed captions is a great starting point, but you can go a level deeper by:

• Working with members of the disability community to get an expert audit of your site’s accessibility — and any problem areas you should prioritize.
• Looking for solutions that will help you establish an accessibility baseline and measure progress over time, with features like real-time monitoring and detailed reporting.
• Making sure your accessibility partner can provide custom fixes on page templates, so you can apply changes — and improvements to the user experience — across multiple pages or websites.

3. Rely on people to keep technology on track.

The current and future applications of AI are exciting, but people still have a critical role to play in closing the digital accessibility gap:

• They help maintain an inclusive perspective: By getting continuous input from the disability community, you can ensure that every accessibility fix actually works for the people who rely on them most. At AudioEye, we work with more than 80 people with disabilities who help us conduct manual audits and solve accessibility issues that our tools have identified. This feedback loop has been critical to our product roadmap — and to our ongoing commitment to the disability community.
• They can provide the right level of customer service: Look for solutions that offer 24/7 customer support — so agents can be available to users with disabilities at their immediate time of need.
• They can help ensure compliance and mitigate risk: Choose a partner that has legal resources on hand to provide ongoing monitoring of international laws, standards, and best practices — and provide dedicated support in the event of litigation.

It’s an exciting time for AI. The latest advances in generative AI have the potential to drive seismic change in how we approach digital accessibility — and more importantly, help close the gap between basic compliance and real accessibility.

But in order to truly improve the customer experience for people with disabilities, organizations must embrace a hybrid approach that combines technology with expert human oversight.  Only then can we eradicate every barrier to digital access for the 1.3 billion people with disabilities around the world.

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