Re: [EXT] Re: AI and the future of Web accessibility Guidelines

I love how optimistic Gregg is about the capability and quality of AI. To date, I haven’t seen it work effectively and equitably.

At what point does the W3C also highlight the ethical considerations of AI? I’m not referring to trust and assurance, but the moral, ethical, and equity lenses, which AI has neglected to date. In that process many, including people with disabilities, are harmed and excluded.

From: Shawn Thompson <shawn@shawnthompson.ca>
Date: Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 8:40 AM
To: Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk>
Cc: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Subject: [EXT] 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


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<mailto: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

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