Accessibility in the Age of AI: Risks and Opportunities

Introduction: The New Frontier AI is everywhere, and accessibility is no exception. We are seeing amazing new tools that can write alt-text for images in seconds or even “predict” where a user wants to go. But with this new power comes a lot of noise—and some dangerous shortcuts. As a leader, you need to know how to separate the AI “hype” from the AI “help.”

The “Overlay” Controversy

You may have seen ads for “Accessibility Overlays”—little plugins that claim to make any website compliant with one line of code. They often use AI to try and “fix” the site as it loads.

• The Reality: Most accessibility experts and disability advocates strongly advise against these. Why? Because they often interfere with the user’s own screen reader software and don’t actually fix the underlying code. They are a “band-aid” on a broken bone. In fact, many companies using these overlays have actually been sued because the overlay made the site harder to use.

The Real AI Opportunity

AI is a powerful assistant, not a replacement.

• Speeding Up Audits: AI can help find “low-hanging fruit” like missing labels or bad contrast much faster than a human.
• Generating Alt-Text: AI can provide a “first draft” of an image description, which a human can then quickly polish.
• Captioning: AI-generated captions are now 90%+ accurate, making it much cheaper to provide video accessibility. The rule of thumb at Aditya Catalyst is: Use AI for the heavy lifting, but always keep a “Human in the Loop” to ensure the final result is actually usable and empathetic.