Post #4272199

2026-05-24 12:32 UTC

@karolherbst@chaos.social I keep on eye on the accessibility tags to see if there's the odd tidbit of info I can gain for webdev. So far, a whole lot of "not impressed". Edit: Except for the glasses with LLM support describing what's visually there. Those seem fairly positively received. @pixelate@tweesecake.social You experiment a lot with LLMs in an accessibility context IIRC. What's your perspective so far?

Replies (1)

@pixelate@tweesecake.social 2026-05-24 13:02

@Isofruit@mastodon.social @karolherbst@chaos.social I'll start by saying that companies could have solved these issues a long time ago, especially in the digital world, without AI. If Apple or Google forced all apps in their store to at least be accessible as far as automated checks can do; the app mind you, not video content **outside of the developers' control**, or they wouldn't be on the store, accessibility would be a ton more vital. But Tim Cook does care about the bloody ROI, so that level of courage will not happen. So developers and technologists still hate the Alt-text scolds, and it's all downstream of what big companies let developers, and technologists, get away with. However, in this timeline, AI gives us the good enough accessibility. Take a picture and you get a good enough description. Share a picture from a Discord group of sighted people who forget you're blind to an AI and you can enjoy it well enough too. Have an AI agent navigate that inaccessible app and you get a good enough experience. Soon, AI systems, LLM's plus prompts plus harnesis will be good enough to describe live video. And yes, again, it'll be good enough. Perhaps less blind people will scold sighted people about the lack of Alt text on pictures and videos. We're tired of trying to push our very own personal boulder up the hill each and every day while sighted people literally do not even see the huge ass rock so wonder why in the world we ask for help so much. Or, why we don't ask for help because we're too focused on our assigned rocks or have been brushed off so many times we feel like it’ll always be that way. Or we think we don't deserve help; I mean do you see this ugly ass boulder bound to me? Or why we move so slowly as if we’re pushing something heavy. Or why we're not happy. Or why we've just given up on pushing the rock and stand there, happy, but still. Meanwhile sighted people practically run around us, most of them joyfully. AI, for a lot of us, is like a machine that can help push for us. Some blind people who are so burnt out we can barely find the strength to get out of bed, lean on AI a lot just to move like stronger blind people, or maybe a tad faster. Some are stronger, adding AI to their own strength so they can actually perform a brisk walk, pushing that boulder up the hill and feeling some of that joy that sighted people have in life. The birds sing, the sun shines, and the world is pretty. And a few surgebind the AI into the boulder, hop on top of that boulder, and drive it like a car. Sure they're still blind inside and sometimes the boulder crashes, but they just start it going again and enjoy the wind in their hair. There are also some blind people who do not use AI at all. They're mad at the system that causes us to bear our rocks that we must push up the hill each day. They look at that boulder and scream in rage and hate for the travisty of the blind who, no matter how fast they can now go, are still bound tightly to that boulder. Note that this is just my view, and my view in no way reflects that of the rest of the blind community.

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