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Artificial intelligence, or AI, is popping up all around us, bringing lofty promises of revolutionizing the world as we know it. We’ve seen the development of self-driving cars, the rise of generative AI apps such as ChatGPT, and websites and movie studios replacing the work of actual human writers with AI-generated content. Wherever we turn, we see a growing reliance on AI across industries ranging from journalism to finance to art.

How often do we encounter the words, For more information, visit our website? In this increasingly digital world, it may be encountered nearly every day. But what if someone interested in learning more about your company has a visual impairment or other disability that makes reading a computer or mobile screen difficult, or even impossible?

Digital accessibility has become an urgent priority for organizations across all industries. The catalyst driving this urgency? The increasing threat of digital accessibility lawsuits against businesses both large and small.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than one billion people worldwide have visual, hearing, motor, cognitive, or other disabilities and impairments that present accessibility barriers to digital products such as websites, e-documents, and mobile apps.

According to the Department of Health & Human Services, over 13 million people in the United States have at least one disability that Section 508 serves to help. Even though Section 508 was added to law in 1998, the lack of strong enforcement has led to a slow start in compliance.

According to Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, all Federal agencies—including all contractors and subcontractors who work directly with federal agencies or receive federal funding—must make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. The law does not apply to small businesses that do not have ties to the federal government; which begs the question, “Why would I comply with a law that does not directly affect my business?”

Imagine for a moment you were hired to read a document aloud to someone who was blind. In addition to reading the text, you must explain titles, headings, paragraphs, graphs, and images. Would you be able to read and explain it clearly? Now imagine a computer doing the same job. How can it differentiate between a heading and a paragraph? How can it describe an image?