AI in Accessibility: A Powerful Tool That Needs Your Expertise

For anyone committed to digital accessibility, the journey is rarely simple. It’s shaped by powerful tools as well as persistent barriers. As a digital accessibility specialist, who has been blind for 17 years and holds certifications like CPACC and Trusted Tester, I understand these challenges on both a professional and deeply personal level.

Now, a new player has joined your team: AI. It’s brilliant, fast, and eager to help solve your toughest accessibility issues. But it’s also new to the game, and its performance is inconsistent. You need to know when to deploy it and when to keep it on the bench.

We will explore specific use cases where AI excels in making digital content more accessible and identify its current limitations. Our aim is to equip you with the insights to strategically apply AI, helping you build truly inclusive digital platforms.

AI Overlays and the Illusion of a Quick Fix

First, let's address accessibility overlays and widgets. You’ve likely seen their pitch: "Make your website 100% accessible with just one line of code!" It sounds like an instant fix for a complex problem.

The reality, as highlighted by much of the accessibility community, is that these overlays often serve as a shiny wrapper on an otherwise broken product.

They attempt to patch over fundamental accessibility issues from the outside, but they don’t fix the core code. This creates a frustrating experience. An overlay might interfere with a user's own assistive technology, like a screen reader, or break keyboard navigation entirely.

While the intention is to provide a quick fix, overlays can create more problems than they solve. This in-depth analysis of accessibility overlays, hosted on Overlay Fact Sheet, offers a comprehensive exploration of the topic.

To sum it up, instead of relying on a superficial patch, you need to address the root of the problem in your code.

Automated Bug Hunting: A Net With Large Holes

Next, let’s explore the role of automated accessibility checkers. These AI-powered tools are excellent for a first sweep of your code to find simple issues. They are fast, efficient, and a great starting point for any accessibility audit.

However, relying solely on automation is not enough. Accessibility is deeply human and contextual.

The effectiveness of these tools varies. The industry consensus places their detection rate at a fraction of all potential issues. Here is what some top tools can do, based on industry data and their documentation:

Deque's axe-core: One of the most respected engines that states its automated scans can detect 57% of accessibility issues. This figure is high for the industry but still leaves a significant portion for manual testing.

WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool): A popular free tool designed to assist human evaluation, not replace it. It helps identify errors but requires a user to interpret the results to determine the true accessibility of a page.

Siteimprove: This platform emphasizes a holistic approach, with its automated checker serving as the first step in a broader strategy that includes manual testing and user feedback. Their solution is designed to automatically identify and prioritize issues (you can try evaluating your website's accessibility through this link), but they highlight that it is only one part of a comprehensive accessibility program.

Google's Lighthouse: Built into Chrome DevTools, it provides a quick audit. However, its own documentation notes that it only covers a subset of accessibility issues and that manual testing is still necessary to ensure a site is fully accessible.

The LFLegal 2024 Midyear Report shows that despite the growing availability of accessibility tools, lawsuits remain at an all-time high. This underscores a crucial point: automation alone is neither a sufficient solution nor a reliable defense. You can read the 2024 Digital Accessibility Lawsuit Report: Insights for 2025 here.

Where AI Genuinely Shines

So, where does AI actually help? It’s a standout assistant for daily tasks.

For example, AI is a champion at creating documentation. Give a well-trained, custom AI bot clear system prompts, a good knowledge base with your project documentation, and a specific user prompt, and it produces impressive results. It drafts test cases, writes detailed bug reports from a few bullet points, and creates status reports in seconds. This frees up enormous time for human experts to focus on complex, nuanced testing that only they can perform.

For assistive technology itself, AI is incredible. An AI can now describe a picture for a blind user directly on their phone. The description is not always perfect. It might mistake a cat for a loaf of bread, but it provides a level of independence unimaginable just a few years ago. It powers live captions for conversations, summarizes complex articles, and helps people communicate.

Final Take: AI Is a Tool, Not a Tyrant

AI is not a magic wand that instantly solves accessibility. Overlays can be problematic, and automated checkers are just one piece of the puzzle.

As an assistant, a documentarian, and an integrated feature in our daily devices, AI is a great force for good. The key is to treat it as a powerful tool guided by human hands, hearts, and expertise. The future of accessibility does not replace human experts with algorithms. It empowers those experts with the smartest assistant we have ever had. That’s the future I’m excited to help create as a digital accessibility specialist.

At SoftServe, we believe accessibility is more than quick fixes or tools — it’s about building inclusive digital experiences for everyone. Combining human expertise with technology, we ensure your digital products are both compliant and truly usable. Whether you need an audit, inclusive design, or AI-driven solutions, we’re here to help.