AI for Accessibility

An umbrella framing used by technology companies and researchers for applications of artificial intelligence — including computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition, and generative models — intended to benefit disabled users. Common examples include AI-generated alt text, automatic captions, sign-language translation, voice cloning for people with speech loss, and visual interpretation services such as Be My Eyes. Critical disability scholars (e.g., Shew, Bennett & Keyes, Marathe et al.) argue that 'AI for accessibility' is not a neutral category: corporate narratives often cast AI as a remediator of disability rather than of inaccessible design, sidestepping structural questions of equity, agency, and responsibility.