If you use AI agents – you still need to be able to take over manually. WebMCP is a standard proposal for a new in-browser AI control and it still requires accessibility, it can make us more efficient, but all users need to have the possibility to take control at any time.
Posts
Staying curious and learning more about AI and where it can help with accessibility, I see a lot of work done with bolting it on instead of shifting it left. Seems that shift left needs us once again.
Perhaps well-intended, the auto-scrolling content can be a real nightmare for multiple groups of users. I’ve done a mobile app audit and turning on screen reader exposed quite a messy experience – and yes, web can suffer from the same issue.
Regressions happen, but proper processes can prevent a lot of it. With accessibility it may be more difficult, but systems can help. Fixing one bug and introducing another one reveals poor system processes – consider accessibility governance.
Thanks to Michael Fairchild and Microsoft, we now have some accessibility benchmarks for a selected range of AI models – where they were tested with automatic accessibility tools after generating sample code. Project is called A11y LLM Eval, and it provides quite some insights, both directly and indirectly.
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is not perfect, but it is a good start – as it can provide reality for Artificial Intelligence (AI). Less hallucinations help with inclusion.
5 years of Web Accessibility Directive went fast. Progress is evident, but is it enough?
Long story short – all political party websites have issues, some are really obvious and all are excluding some groups of people. They should do better if they want to get votes from as many as possible. And shift accessibility left does not mean political left!
Please make sure you consider all users when developing countdowns, timers and similar dynamic information or risk making some experiences horrible.
Having an accessibility statement in itself is saying a lot, but only if the statement is telling the truth and in the right way.
You have probably read a lot about EAA, I know I have. It is an amazing thing, I am certain, but there are some parts that are not so amazing. This post informs you about both parts, we need to understand before we can improve.
Sometimes I read a post and have a need to add some personal views of mine. This time it’s a short list that came to my mind about being an accessibility specialist.
Less than a month before EAA start and some organizations still wait with accessibility activities. It is not too late. Stay calm, but make sure you are preparing. It is about process improvement, not perfection.
I love GAAD and sharing and learning about practical and theoretical knowledge about accessibility and disabilities. But I also agree that awareness alone is not enough.
Recently I did an audit of a webpage rich with animations. And needed to warn people about them as sometimes they destroy the experience if we are not careful.
A couple posts back I pointed out latest WebAIM Million shows shopping websites have worst accessibility, and it seems that shopping native mobile applications also share this unfortunate faith.
Vibe Coding is here and it’s amazing. It started a new era where it seems that make your own software is now often a better choice compared to buying it. But – please beware.
You have already read about why is it important and I hope you also understand that it’s not a project but a continuous program, or even better – an upgrade of a culture. But how to prepare?
Accessibility statements are not there for authorities, but for your users. And 90/100 and similar scores mean different things to different people, so I suggest to drop them and rather make the statement understandable.
If you don’t believe me – check the latest draft of Accessibility Roles and Responsibilities Mapping and translate it to your product / service / organization.
Not a very well known fact, but all products and services that are in the scope of EAA and include support services will also need to have them accessible.
A lot of opinions, a lot of academic studies, some lab testing, too little feedback from people with disabilities and too much hype – I need to add.
We have a lot of good accessibility guidelines for web content, documents and multimedia. But what about accessibility of games on mobile phones and tablets? Things can be quite complex there, but that also allows for innovation.
Unfortunately sometimes organizations take shortcuts and just make a generalized copy of accessibility statements from their competition or some random site.
People starting with accessibility can often get a bit biased perception and focus mainly on screen readers. I believe it has to do with the guidelines.
Save yourself time and resources and prepare before you buy an accessibility audit with these tips.
Seems that even AI needs accessibility, at least some parts of WCAG will help AI as well. Another benefit of accessibility.
Demographics tells us that we need help. Automating the physical world requires robots. We need them to be accessible!
Sometimes they can be a huge burden and sometimes just a small annoyance. A quick reflection on what to think before using…