Comment by z3c0

10 hours ago

Using AI to close gaps in accessibility is like adding treads to your vehicle because society is too lazy to pave roads.

6 comments

z3c0

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stillpointlab  9 hours ago

I think people outside of enterprise have no idea the cost to audit and fix a massive website.

The law is a forcing function here. Lawsuits can and do happen when sites of a certain size fail to implement government-mandated laws. This is a good thing, IMO, but it only comes into force in the largest cases.

If there is a credible path to 1/10th the cost (while still providing liability insurance which is a critical piece) then that will likely encourage more enterprise to do it proactively, and will open the door for startups and mid-sized companies.

I have no idea why anyone would choose to see this as bad.

  • z3c0  8 hours ago

    I'm not outside of enterprise and have worked hands-on for over a decade with AI-driven customer workflows. The cost of accessibility audits are NOT higher than AI R&D or third-party B2B contracts for vaporware touting to do the same.

    Sorry if that assertion stands opposed to your value prop.

    • stillpointlab  8 hours ago

      The state of affairs in the last 6 months bears almost no resemblance to the state of affairs in the last decade.

      No need to apologize, neither of us can predict the future. I am optimistic Fable-level models can succeed where the old not-actually-AI models failed. No shame in being pessimistic about the same.

MrJohz  9 hours ago

I think they were suggesting using AI to audit for accessibility, which is probably a better approach, and probably more effective than a lot of the basic accessibility checkers out there that work on a list of fairly simple rules and don't understand the context of what they're doing, so tend to give either very limited advice, or sometimes even offer bad advice.

  • z3c0  9 hours ago

    Research and fallbacks would certainly be better. An 85% design, 15% algorithmic solution is probably the sweet "pobody's nerfect" spot, but a company using AI to solve accessibility is like selling rape whistles -- in a perfect world, your market is nonexistent.