Will AI allow us to dispense with all or most accessibility regulations?

Abstract

With advances in AI, computer vision, and interface understanding, there is the potential to offload much of the work currently spent by companies' developers in making products accessible. There is also the potential to move our major accessibility approach from an 'inclusively-designed-products-plus-AT focus to a 'universal-interface-transformer focus. This would be a major reversal of approach and have significant ramifications for legislation, regulation, and the established large-scale accessibility industries that have grown up around them. Such a disruption would require concrete evidence that such a change would, in fact, be better for people with disabilities. It would also require a path from the former to the latter. This paper presents the case for such a shift, some of the benefits and ramifications, and the developments necessary to make the shift. It also outlines a hybrid approach between inclusive design and bespoke custom interfaces.