AI Coding Assistant

An artificial intelligence tool integrated into code editors that assists developers by generating code suggestions, completing code snippets, and answering programming questions using large language models trained on code repositories. In accessibility contexts, AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot represent both an opportunity and a risk: they can generate accessibility-compliant code by default if properly prompted or configured, potentially improving web accessibility at scale since developers already use them. However, research shows they frequently produce inaccessible output when developers do not explicitly request accessibility, and developers often blindly accept AI-generated code without verifying compliance with standards like WCAG. Tools like CodeA11y demonstrate how accessibility can be embedded into AI coding assistants through system-level prompts and automated checking.