Quick answer: Accessibility is not an afterthought or a model setting. Structure content with semantic headings, readable controls, descriptive links and meaningful alternatives for essential images.
Start with the reading task
A US nonprofit publishes an AI-assisted grant guide. It needs one primary heading, logical subheadings, plain-language summaries and links that describe their destination. “Click here” repeated ten times does not help people using screen readers or skimming a page.
Review the page in several ways
Navigate only with a keyboard. Enlarge text and inspect whether content remains readable on a phone. Verify color contrast and visible focus indicators. Check that form errors identify the problem in text, not only color. If a diagram contains important information, repeat its meaning in adjacent prose.
AI output can miss context
A generated image alt text might list colors while missing the diagram’s actual function. Have a human write or verify the alternative text from the user’s perspective. Likewise, an AI summary may strip qualifiers that are important for a reader deciding what to do next.
Checklist for editors
- One clear H1 and sensible H2/H3 sequence.
- Links named by purpose and destination.
- Essential tables with proper headers.
- No information conveyed by color alone.
- Labels for every form field and meaningful errors.
- Captions and transcripts for audio/video where needed.
- Descriptive image alternatives, or empty alt for purely decorative images.
- Review of mobile reflow and keyboard interaction.
Measuring improvements
Use automated auditing to catch obvious markup issues, then manually test the actual workflow. Automated scores alone cannot tell you whether instructions are understandable to a customer.
FAQ
Can AI automatically make a whole website WCAG-compliant?
No. Assistance with fixes is useful, but conformance requires checking the implemented experience and relevant success criteria.
References and further reading
These references provide context and official guidance. The sample workflows above are illustrative designs, not vendor performance tests.
Published by: FlowHarbor Editorial Desk. Read our sourcing and review policy.