The majority of people (60%) surveyed by the University of Phoenix and Harris Poll said that artificial intelligence is improving their ability to understand accessibility, especially in the workplace. The groups collected responses in late June from 1,019 employed adults aged 18 and older, all of whom had taken a professionally presented training or school course in the previous year.
Celebrating the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law July 26, 1990, researchers sought to find the effect of AI on accessibility at work, including aspects such as access to assistive technology and workplaces adhering to standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Of the respondents, 89% said that workflows, including the creation of accessible documents, could be improved by AI.
Much has been made of AI’s ability to recreate human biases. It’s for this reason that municipalities like New York City implemented an AI in hiring law in 2023. Since then, other states have followed suit, including California and Texas.
While AI use at work is still largely unregulated, Kelly Hermann, vice president of accessibility and student affairs at University of Phoenix, was bullish on the ability of AI at work to bolster inclusion.
“If accessibility is built in from the beginning, organizations are more likely to create AI-enabled environments that are universally usable,” Hermann said in a statement. “Clearer content, better summaries, accurate captions, and multiple formats can help workers and learners with disabilities, but they also help busy adults, multilingual learners, mobile users, and anyone trying to absorb information quickly.”