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

This is my favorite question about AI, Jen. Dominique Hazael-Massieux has
gotten things started with this note "AI & the Web: Understanding and
managing the impact of Machine Learning Models on the Web"
https://www.w3.org/reports/ai-web-impact/.  There is so much more work to
do. You may open issues at https://github.com/w3c/ai-web-impact/.



<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
Virus-free.www.avg.com
<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
<#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

On Thu, Apr 4, 2024 at 9:01 AM Jennifer Strickland <jstrickland@mitre.org>
wrote:

> 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
>
> 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
>
>