The Business Accessibility Scam

Where Have All The Smart Business Leaders Gone?

Over the past two decades, societal norms have shifted, cultural attitudes have polarized, and communications has slipped into a realm of distrust. That is, the line between human intelligence and technology persuasion has blurred our judgment of what is right and wrong. Since the beginning of this century, technology innovation has captured our imagination, human rights advancements have generated global diversity awareness, and the labour divide has been replaced with the widening digital divide. Ambitious entrepreneurs have been allowed to exploit the general population with promises of less work and more leisure; and in an effort to adapt to the digital tidal wave of information, they have allowed misleading and false information to override their judgement in making smart business decisions. Despite legal and moral responsibilities, quick fix innovation solutions have created a willful blindness amongst many of our business leaders resulting in an ever widening digital communication divide.

The invention of the World Wide Web (WWW), like the invention of the printing press in the 1400's, opened an access portal to information that inspired greater levels of education within the general population. The internet, and now the Internet of Things (IOT), is the infrastructure of hardware upon which WWW information can grow exponentially and be available to anyone that has the access capability. In the 1990's, recognizing the innovation inequities of information access, governments around the world began implementing legislative standards based on four core principles (Dignity, Independence, Integration, Equality) to ensure that all people had access to the WWW digital information. However, without proper enforcement procedures, this action gave birth to a new business opportunity that would exploit the marketplace for financial gain. Unregulated accessibility consultants flooded the market, using scare tactics of legal reprisals, and with misleading and false information about digital accessibility expectations. This has resulted in a business environment of frustration, mistrust in the abilities of disabled people, and a willingness to adopt quick fix solutions to digital communication accessibility challenges.

The unregulated Text-based User Interface (TUI) to the Graphical User Interface (GUI) transition in the 1990's, disrupted the lives of blind people around the world. Suddenly, blind people were unable to access digital information, and many lost their jobs while others found employment opportunities disappear. Again, in the 2020's people living with vision loss are experiencing another unregulated innovation transition that is disrupting our lives. The Artificial Intelligent (AI) accessibility overlay quick fix solution is sweeping the business world like an uncontrolled virus and is creating digital access inequalities for people using assistive technologies.

The AI overlay innovation is an emerging technology that is still in the early stages of development, and possibly one day may be a viable information access solution, but today it is a digital barrier to assistive technologies. However, it is being sold as an accessibility quick fix solution to organizations that do not understand accessibility standards and are vulnerable to misleading information. Business leaders that do not take the time to understand the digital accessibility communication challenges of their customers will fall prey to scammers and false solutions. It is unbelievable that Ontario, a recognized global leader in accessibility legislation, would allow unproven technologies to be implemented in a regulated business environment. Buyer beware, as ignorance of the law is no defence in the courts of justice, and businesses implementing AI overlays as an accessibility solution will quickly learn the hard way that it is not a good investment.

Many companies today are tempted by AI overlay products

https://overlayfactsheet.com/

that promise to make the company web site accessibility compliant with legislative requirements by a single line of code. These AI overlay vendors claim that they can make your web site compliant but fail to tell you that your business is not protected from legal liability. At best, these AI overlay widgets offer redundant functionality with what the user already has within their computer operating system, browser, and assistive technologies. As a screen reader user, numerous sites have become less usable for me with these AI overlays.

It takes more than automation to achieve web site compliance with legislative accessibility requirements. The ineffectiveness of AI overlays as an accessibility solution is something that has broad agreement among accessibility practitioners, as shown by the WebAIM Survey of Web Accessibility.

https://webaim.org/projects/million

As is typical with automated testing tools, only about a third of accessibility problems are identified, but may be useful to identify common errors. An overlay can solve minor problems. But the unsolved problems for assistive technology users are much greater. The accessibility of a web site is important for attracting customers, but the usability of the web site will determine the level of success in which customers engage your organization. Accessibility and usability are closely related and combining accessibility standards and usability processes with real people ensures that web design is technically and functionally usable by people with disabilities.

The aim of accessibility is to remove barriers for perceiving, understanding, and navigating your interface and to ensure that nobody is excluded. Usability, on the other hand, is more to do with designing a user-friendly approach. It is concerned with how people interact with a website's interface. That is, can people quickly and easily accomplish what they want to do on your web site, and most importantly do people enjoy using your web site? To make your website fully accessible to people with disabilities there is no alternative to following accepted best practices: First, automated validation testing of the website; second, manual testing of selected pages; and third, assistive technology use-case testing of selected pages.

Throughout the pandemic, as blind people, like everyone else, became increasingly dependent on websites to purchase goods, enroll in education, and perform financial transactions, it became clear that more and more companies were downloading their accessibility challenges to third party partner AI overlay vendors. Business leader decision makers became overwhelmed with the virtual online access demand, that they chose to ignore the digital communication needs of the disabled population, and foolishly adopt a short-term quick fix accessibility solution that resulted in a backlash from Blind people and accessibility advocates.

https://adrianroselli.com/2021/09/userway-will-get-you-sued.html

According to news reports, accessibility lawsuits

https://www.lflegal.com/2021/11/overlay-legal-update/

are on the rise against companies using accessibility widgets or overlays with the claim that they conform to legal requirements. Yet, website overlay solutions have become incredibly popular even though these solutions do nothing to make a website more accessible for the blind. None-the-less where there is demand, there is always supply, but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Beware of AI tech vendors willing to say anything just to increase their profits.

Getting machines to simulate human intelligence is the fundamental goal of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and many innovation companies are investing heavily in AI technologies. These systems focus on three cognitive skills: learning, reasoning, and self-correction. The algorithm rules provide computing devices with step-by-step instructions for how to complete a specific task, but are they ready to replace a human accessibility tester? Maybe some day, but not today, and companies that employ accessibility AI overlays are paying for the privilege of being a research guinea pig while willingly limiting market expansion. Your business would not invest in a fleet of self driving cars as delivery vehicles that do not pass safety standards on our streets today. It is no longer ethical to expect physically disabled people to use the back door delivery ramp and freight elevator into your business. So, why would you expect blind customers to accept second class, difficult to use, communication services into your business? A "separate but equal" solution is not acceptable and is not sustainable.

Why Overlay Solutions Fail to Deliver True Accessibility

Accessibility AI overlay solutions may provide a temporary Band-Aid while your organization develops a long-term accessibility strategy, but be aware of the following:

- Overlays are automated, so they miss about 70% of the accessibility issues. These issues can only be assessed using manual testing. Remediation, for those issues that are detected, is only applied to the overlay layer, not the web site code which does not benefit the business in the long term.

- Overlays override the users’ existing assistive technology tools. Screen readers and browsers have built-in customizing options for user preferences that are effective for all web sites. Forcing users with disabilities to override their assistive tools to learn and customize an overlay’s toolbar options for each web site is a serious usability barrier, and only serve the interests of the web site owner looking to avoid investing into proper web site accessibility.

- People with disabilities also use their mobile devices to browse web sites, and unless heavy customization is applied, any out of the box solution will very likely fail for mobile users.

- The web site owner is allowing a third party to open a door and inject code into the web site. This inherently opens security risks that should be carefully assessed.

- Many AI overlay vendors use the practice of paying for praise. Such as, offering its customers Amazon gift cards to leave positive testimonial reviews at software review sites. Paid software reviews cannot be depended upon as trusted advertising.

Businesses, run by individuals, tend to focus on executing their business in the environment they face today and spend relatively little time thinking about global trends. Thus, societal disruptors that happen over a longer period of time catch them by surprise, and in most cases are unable to adapt to the new social norms. In 2005 Ontario passed the accessibility legislation into law, with the goal of making Ontario fully inclusive by 2025. So, organizations that have built their business based on the false accessibility AI overlay claims are out of step with the rest of Ontario. That is, while most decision-makers focus on factors such as financial, operational, security, and even human risk, many neglect the importance of mitigating legal/compliance hazards, especially when it comes to web accessibility. Furthermore, the increase in awareness around social justice issues has firmly set the spotlight on businesses as consumers are beginning to demand more, especially concerning matters such as diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Your business model should be continuously evolving and should always have some kind of continuous feedback mechanism across the value chain. In the digital world, fake news and advertising is the world’s most powerful and socially destructive marketing technique and we are all susceptible to its infection. It is for this reason word-of-mouth marketing and user reviews are so effective and important. We spread experiences with brands or products to teach others. By sharing our knowledge, the recipient benefits, and our perceived social value increases. However, over the past two decades we have shifted from The Information Age into The Disinformation Age, and companies that focus primarily on growing revenue, with facts and user safety coming second, are vulnerable to misleading and false information. Thus, misinformation becomes the new battlefront for companies, as disinformation can not only have harmful consequences for the brand by reducing customer confidence in the brand but can also lead to harmful economic effects due to a negative impact on sales of products and/or services.

In advertising, there's a big difference between pushing the truth and making false claims. AI overlays that claim web site accessibility compliance will not only jeopardize your market growth but will position you for a potential lawsuit. Rather than focusing on the disability costs to your business, you need to focus on the investment benefits of implementing digital communication standards:

- Comply with legislation and avoid lawsuits,

- Avoid bad publicity with greater assistive technology accessibility support,

- Reach more customers by Increased mobile device usability,

- Improved customer experience and increased market reach into rural areas,

- Increase your revenue,

- Gain the competitive edge by Supporting people with temporary environmental and medical conditions,

- Improved search engine ranking,

- Gain repeat customers and tap into the disability talent pool,

- Peace of mind by Supporting the needs of an aging population.

Accessibility is a measurement of productivity, which defines usability of employees and customers with and without a disability. Statistics don’t lie. Web accessibility is quickly becoming one of the most significant legal risks that businesses are exposed to. As further landmark cases are settled in favour of the plaintiffs, we will likely continue to see even more lawsuits filed over the coming years. This means that ensuring your business web site is accessible to people with disabilities is no longer a choice or a trend but is a standard that is required by law.

So, become a smart business leader, and develop a baseline accessibility strategy of best practices, that not only values people, but promotes truth in the marketplace. Like the brick-and-mortar world, digital communication standards that define information access requirements for all people, have been designed for a purpose, and it is up to you to differentiate between false and true advertising. Start by engaging with an Accessibility Specialist that can guide your business through the murky world of accessibility, and educate yourself on the Digital Accessibility Legal Issues.

https://www.accessibility.legal/

Not convinced? Then watch the video demonstration: A screen reader user experience in navigating and interacting with an AI Accessibility Overlay website.

https://youtu.be/eMVlZGn80Hw