Web accessibility is a vital aspect of creating an inclusive online environment, but achieving it has not always been an easy feat. With the rapid advancements in AI technology, new tools are emerging that can significantly improve website accessibility for people with disabilities. One such tool, accessiBe, has caught our attention at Vive. Using an AI-powered process, it offers a seamless solution to ensure websites are current and compliant. Read on to learn how this process works, what it can offer your company, and how Vive can help you add this powerful tool to your website.
What is accessiBe?
With more than one billion people in the world having a disability, accessiBe is a technology company that works to improve online inclusivity and make the digital world accessible to everyone. It uses an AI-powered web accessibility solution named accessWidget to help websites achieve accessibility and compliance. By increasing the accessibility of websites, accessiBe also enables companies to meet the legal requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) while expanding their market reach and drawing in more customers.
Automated Accessibility with accessWidget
accessWidget employs two applications to ensure a website is accessible to all: an accessibility interface and an AI-powered process. The accessibility interface addresses issues with a website’s user interface (UI), design, and readability. Its capabilities include font and color handling, animations, content highlighting, audio muting, and more.
More complicated accessibility adjustments, such as screen-reader optimization and keyboard navigation, are where AI comes into play. accessWidget uses a process called machine learning, a branch of AI that allows computers to learn without being programmed. Machine learning gives website developers more time to focus on keeping websites current with up-to-date information. And because machine learning can run in the background, it can easily pick up on trends or patterns and improve its capabilities over time as it gathers more data. accessWidget uses this machine learning to implement two AI engines, Computer Vision and Contextual Understanding.
Computer Vision and Contextual Understanding: A Dynamic AI Duo
When accessWidget scans all the images on a website, Computer Vision analyzes and describes them. If alternative text is missing, the AI-powered technology extracts the embedded text using Optimal Character Recognition (OCR), which recognizes text within a digital image. It then learns the objects that make up the image using IRIS technology. Next, accessWidget supplies accurate, detailed alternative text for these images. This allows blind users to access the site content with a screen reader, which relies on alternative text to announce what is on the page.
Contextual Understanding is an AI technology that works to learn the purpose and functionality of website elements. As it analyzes a website, it matches its elements and behaviors to millions of past visits to other websites, allowing it to gain context and learn the purpose of the features on the webpage. In turn, necessary improvements to the website code are implemented, bettering the experience of users who rely on a screen reader.
The combination of Computer Vision and Computer Understanding makes a powerful tool that allows accessWidget to address the functionality of the following website elements:
- Popups
- Menus
- Dropdowns
- Forms
- Links
- Icons
- Images
- Buttons
In addition to keeping a website functional and accessible, accessWidget’s AI also checks to ensure a website complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the ADA. Websites can break compliance easily and unknowingly due to their ever-changing dynamic of content updates, browser changes, and more. accessWidget’s AI re-scans every page of a website at least once every 24 hours to ensure it is compliant and can remedy any issues that do break compliance immediately.
The entire accessWidget process takes about 48 hours after installation, but it increases in speed in catching errors and overall accuracy the longer it’s on your website. By incorporating accessWidget’s powerful combination of Computer Vision and Contextual Understanding, websites can not only address the functionality of various elements but also ensure continuous compliance with the WCAG and the ADA, even as websites change and grow.
Revolutionize Web Accessibility with accessiBe
As the internet continues to evolve, so does web accessibility legislation designed to protect the rights of those with disabilities to fully access it. Prior to AI tools, more complex accessibility adjustments such as screen-reader optimization and keyboard navigation were difficult and costly. Today, AI-powered tools like accessiBe have paved an easier path for companies to establish websites that are fully compliant and easily accessible to all by offering a simple and efficient solution. By embracing these tools, companies can demonstrate their commitment to inclusivity and create an online environment that welcomes and accommodates users of all abilities.
Interested in leveraging the power of AI to ensure your website is up-to-date and compliant? Contact Vive today to learn how we can help you add accessiBe to your website!
