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

First, I agree with Todd and Patrick that AI will not be able to do the work of accessibility any time soon if every.

Second, the reality is that people will look for any shortcut and for many it will be easier to say let AI do it instead of learning to deliver accessibility.

We need to be clearer in our guidelines to make it easier for people to understand how to make things accessible.

We also need to address the use of AI, because people will jump to the seemingly easy route to meet accessibility without learning how to do it.


From: Roberto Scano <mail@robertoscano.info>
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 2:06 AM
To: Todd Libby <toddlibby@protonmail.com>
Cc: Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk>, WCAG list (w3c-wai-gl@w3.org) <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Subject: [EXT] Re: AI and the future of Web accessibility Guidelines
Agreed. Same issue of Google is happened with an e-commerce web site with mistake for gluten-free and with gluten. In this case the damage can be higher. . . Il gio 11 apr 2024, 03: 22 Todd Libby <toddlibby@ protonmail. com> ha scritto: I agree

Agreed. Same issue of Google is happened with an e-commerce web site with mistake for gluten-free and with gluten. In this case the damage can be higher...



Il gio 11 apr 2024, 03:22 Todd Libby <toddlibby@protonmail.com<mailto:toddlibby@protonmail.com>> ha scritto:
I agree fully with Patrick:

> 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.

Being a strong supporter against AI, because it will never work for accessibility, we have been down this road before. I mean, Google attempted their best shot and look where it got them. In hot water (so to speak).

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/01/google-sorry-racist-auto-tag-photo-app

and if we are ever going to learn something as a people (which we have not), instances like this will always be why I vehemently oppose AI in tech and accessibility.

The article may be old, but the fact remains that AI is not the answer now (or ever in my opinion).





---
Best,

Todd Libby





On Thursday, April 4th, 2024 at 8:08 AM, Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk<mailto:redux@splintered.co.uk>> 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