Innovation is Shifting the Dialogue

on Digital Accessibility

 

 

AI’s capacity to customize experiences across channels is assisting in the optimization of every facet of human-centric design.

Conversations about “accessibility” usually center on the physical environment, such as elevators and ramps for individuals with physical disabilities.

However, as our lives become more and more reliant on the internet, digital accessibility is receiving more and more attention. Organizations were rushing to make their websites user-friendly for everyone, even before the Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act was passed by the US Congress in 2022.

A startling 98% of firms now believe that human-centered design is crucial. Even while just 59% of applications now do not fulfill accessibility standards, this is a rapidly evolving field, largely because of artificial intelligence.

Naturally, AI’s capacity to customize experiences across channels contributes to the optimization of every facet of human-centric design. These new accessibility initiatives suggest a more nuanced understanding of personalization, taking into account not just a customer’s preferences but also their behavior in the world.

Do they suffer from visual impairments?

Does someone’s physical impairment make it difficult for them to use a certain website? Being able to respond to these queries and adjust digital experiences accordingly will be essential to designing with the needs of people in mind strategies moving forward.

In what precise way does AI help with this?

Let’s start with the assortment of AI-enabled products that have surfaced in the last few years to assist those who are blind or visually impaired. One such instance is alt text. AI can now, with a single button click, convey the content of on-site films or photos to people who might otherwise find it difficult to see them.

Text-to-speech capabilities have also proliferated, which is important not only for the blind but also for people with cognitive impairments who find reading difficult. Millions of people’s lives have already been made easier by these easily navigable consumer-facing solutions that are powered by AI and enormous data repositories.

But there are newer applications that in some ways are even more exciting. These circle back to the idea of personalization.

The fact is that individual people build websites and will inevitably reflect their unconscious biases. This extends beyond how a website functions to every aspect of a website’s design from stock photos to the behavior of chatbots.

By leveraging AI, organizations can detect and mitigate this unconscious bias, cleansing biased language from datasets and helping to bolster demographic representation. Disparities in the representation of different demographic groups can also be identified and addressed by statistical methods. Alternatives that are open-source are capable of evaluating and reducing “fairness” concerns. Furthermore, AI can assist businesses in meeting users where they are by assisting with the delivery of content in the local tongues.

These efforts would matter even if they applied to just a small subset of people. But the reality is that they apply to many magnitudes more. According to the World Health Organization, 1.3 billion people globally currently experience a significant disability and that doesn’t factor in those with temporary challenges like a broken arm.

In other words, to neglect those with disabilities is to neglect over one-sixth of the global population. No organization can afford to do that, nor should any organization want to. Closing the accessibility gap will not be easy, but it is necessary work and AI has a central role to play in it.