Using AI to improve accessibility
Practical ways AI lowers everyday barriers, and how to use it with people rather than instead of them.
Jamie Owen Updated 4 Jun 2026
The clearest good-news story in AI is access. Used well, these tools lower everyday barriers for people who read differently, hear differently, or work in a second language. Used carelessly, they paper over the same barriers with plausible but wrong output. The how matters more than the enthusiasm.
Where it helps today
The obvious wins first: alt text and image descriptions, which AI can draft at scale for a human to check, and captions or transcripts, which are fast, useful, and the backbone of accessible meeting notes. Verify names and technical terms in both. Transcription still mangles them.
Less obvious, and at least as valuable: plain-language rewrites. Turning dense text into clear English helps far more people than those with a diagnosed need. And for anyone with dyslexia or ADHD, or simply writing in a second language, an assistant that summarises and helps with phrasing removes real friction from an ordinary working day.
Do it with people, not at them
Wrong auto-generated alt text is worse than an honest gap, because it misleads the exact people who rely on it. So check before publishing, and offer AI-assisted formats rather than imposing them. Accessibility has always been about choice.
The best judge of whether something is genuinely accessible is a person who needs it to be. Ask them. Nothing on this page replaces that.
Let AI draft the accessible version. Keep a person deciding whether it is actually usable.