AI and alt text
summary
Company sites auto-generate alt text in the CMS pipeline (Intuit has done this for ~5–6 years), running image captions through a wordlist and content guidelines before inserting suggested alt text for editors to review, not auto-publish. Common tools cited: Be My Eyes/Be My AI, Seeing AI, AIRA, PiccyBot, ChatGPT/Gemini. Problems: AI verbosity, lack of page context, hallucinations (pickle vs caterpillar), disability sanitization; prefer decorative-first default, keep descriptions to ~120 character target, and maintain human in the loop.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (13)
- 0:00AI and alt text intro
- 1:49Why AI matters now
- 3:14Alt text history challenges
- 10:43Writing good alt text
- 16:03Decorative alt text fails
- 20:20INTIT AI for alt text
- 24:54Blind users experiences
- 30:33Four AI-only alt text problems
- 37:27Context critical for AI
- 39:11AI hallucinations dangers
- 47:37AI-assisted alt text best practices
- 50:07AI prompts for alt text
- 52:55Q&A
related talks
34mAI for Accessibility: Empowering Inclusive Digital Experiences
50mAI as an A11y Ally
34mAI and Accessibility: the Good, the Bad, and the Bollocks
30mAI and Accessibility: the Good, the Bad, and the Bollocks
48mAI and Disability: Progress or Exclusion?
49mUsing AI to Streamline Inclusive Design Without Losing Humanity
57mCan Gen AI make the world Disability inclusive?
32mAccessibility powered by AI