William Reuschel, Inclusive Design Practice Lead at Applause, noticed something that surprised him: more organizations are using AI to build accessible code from the ground up than to hunt down problems. Rather than deploying AI as a detective tool, companies are shifting left—bringing accessibility into the earliest stages of design and development, where it matters most. This subtle but significant change in how teams think about digital accessibility reveals something hopeful: when accessibility is treated as a feature, not a fix, AI becomes genuinely helpful.
The shift shows up most vividly in e-commerce. Companies are using AI to generate alternative text for product images that have historically been invisible to screen reader users, breathing information into digital voids. They're building comparison tools that help users with cognitive disabilities navigate dense product information more easily. These aren't afterthoughts or compliance checkboxes—they're features designed to improve the experience for everyone, with particular benefit for people with disabilities.
Yet skepticism remains warranted. When developers and testers claim their AI scanning tools catch 75% or more of accessibility issues, both Reuschel and Bob Farrell, Vice President of Solution Delivery & A11Y at Applause, raise their eyebrows. "There are definitely people overestimating the efficacy of their tooling," Reuschel said. Farrell is blunter about the gap between hype and reality: "A large number of issues aren't machine-discoverable. Some AI tools and automated scanners are better than others at discovering certain types of problems. But by no means are they detecting all the possible errors actual people with disabilities could encounter." The real world doesn't cooperate with percentages. Accessibility defects that machines miss—nuanced issues of context, usability, and design logic—still reach end users.
That gap shows up in Applause's survey of people using assistive technologies. Despite all the talk of AI-powered accessibility initiatives, the data tells a harder story. More than 10% of assistive technology users encounter blocking accessibility issues more than once a week. Another 17.3% hit them about once a week. Among those who rely on assistive technology as essential or important—blind users on screen readers, for instance—those numbers climb to 11.8% and 18.8%. The weekly blockers add up fast.
The consequences are stark. More than 91% of people with disabilities reported they'd likely abandon an app with poor accessibility. Nearly half would only use it if absolutely necessary. But the inverse is equally powerful: 62.8% of respondents said they're extremely loyal to brands that get accessibility right. That's not corporate social responsibility talking—that's business sense. An accessible digital experience isn't a burden on companies; it's a competitive advantage.
Moritz Glantz, Inclusive Design Program Consultant at Applause, points to a simple solution: empathy built through direct observation. "If you see a person with a disability use a digital product for the first time, it will change how you view your product," he said. Glantz regularly witnesses the impossible: blind creators hosting makeup channels on YouTube, disabled gamers tackling graphics-intensive video games. These moments dismantle assumptions. They remind teams that people with disabilities don't use products the way designers expect—they use them in ways designers never imagined. That's not a limitation to accommodate. It's an invitation to design better for everyone.