How to Use AI for Accessibility in Product Design

Accessibility work splits into judgment and checklist. AI is good at the checklist half, which is most of the volume and none of the interesting part.

Used properly it clears the obvious failures fast, so your attention goes to the decisions that actually need a person.

Auditing a screen

Hand it a screenshot and ask it to flag low contrast text, small tap targets and unclear focus states.

This is not a formal audit and should never be presented as one. It catches obvious failures while they are still cheap, which is worth doing on every screen before review.

Alt text

Describe what the image is doing in the page, not just what is in it, and ask for alt text that carries the meaning.

Then edit it. Alt text should say why the image matters. A model left alone will describe the objects, which is usually the least useful possible answer.

Plainer language

Clear writing is an accessibility feature, and it is the one that helps the most people.

Use it to cut jargon, shorten sentences, and make instructions and error messages followable. This helps users with cognitive disabilities and it also helps everyone reading on a phone on a train.

Translating WCAG

WCAG is dense and reads like what it is, a standards document.

Turning a specific success criterion into a plain explanation with concrete examples is a genuinely good use of these tools, especially for getting a whole team to agree on what a criterion is asking for.

Where it stops being useful

It cannot use a screen reader. It cannot navigate by keyboard the way somebody does who has only ever navigated that way. It cannot feel the friction that a motor impairment adds to a drag interaction.

Automated checks catch a fraction of real accessibility problems. The rest needs testing with assistive technology and with disabled users, and that part is not optional.

Questions I get asked

Can it make my product accessible? No. It speeds up the obvious fixes. Actual conformance and actual usability need human testing.

Is generated alt text good enough? As a first draft. Edit it for purpose and context, which takes seconds and changes the result completely.