Re: AI and the future of Web accessibility Guidelines

Let’s not forget language of text. Some assistive technology is 
already doing this. My text to speech does not even respect the `lang` 
attributes.

**Shawn Thompson, WAS**
Web Accessibility Technical Advisor | Conseiller technique en 
accessibilité Web
Montreal, Quebec
(613) 363-7468
shawn@shawnthompson.ca

On 4 Apr 2024, at 8:08, Patrick H. Lauke wrote:

> On 04/04/2024 08:02, Gregg Vanderheiden RTF wrote:
>>
>>
>> I think much of our work is not forward-looking.
>>
>> We will soon have AI that can do a better job of text alternatives 
>> than humans can for example.
>> And then it is unclear why we would require authors to do all this 
>> work.
>> This applies to a LOT of things.
>
> As a counterpoint, Gregg ... when does it end? You've stated similar 
> when it comes to things like authors needing to provide correct 
> explicit markup for headings, since (to paraphrase) "AI will be able 
> to do it".
>
> Captions, audio descriptions ... "AI will be able to do it".
>
> Colour contrast issues? "AI can detect it and change it on the fly".
>
> Once you bring in the "AI will do it" line of thinking, we may as well 
> just remove any author requirement, and WCAG becomes just a list of 
> requirements for AI user agents to massage any old web content into 
> something accessible.
>
> P
> -- 
> Patrick H. Lauke
>
> * https://www.splintered.co.uk/
> * https://github.com/patrickhlauke
> * https://flickr.com/photos/redux/
> * https://mastodon.social/@patrick_h_lauke