Constructing Websites with Generative AI Tools: The Accessibility of Their Workflows and Products for Users With Disabilities

Zsuzsanna B. Palmer Grand Valley State University ; Sushil K. Oswal University of Washington

Abstract

Generative AI tools allow anyone without web-design experience to have a business website created when the user provides a few specifications about the business, such as its name, type, and location. But the resulting websites not only fall short of the business's basic needs but they also raise major concerns about their accessibility for disabled users. This study specifically examines whether these AI generated websites are accessible to screen-reader users with visual disabilities. It presents data about the usability and accessibility of the products of three generative AI website builders, highlights the specific problems found by an expert screen reader test along with an automated machine scan of these sites, and discusses some causes of and recommendations for solving these problems.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2025-01-01
DOI
10.1177/10506519241280644
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  2. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication

References (46) · 9 in this index

  1. Amershi S., Weld D., Vorvoreanu M., Fourney A., Nushi B., Collisson P., Suh J., Iqbal S., Bennett B., Inkpen …
  2. Barocas S., Guo A., Kamar E., Krones J., Morris M. R., Vaughan J. W., Wadsworth D., Wallach H. (2021, July). …
  3. Bender E. M., Gebru T., McMillan-Major A., Shmitchell S. (2021, March). On the dangers of stochastic parrots:…
  4. Bigham J. P., Brudvik J. T., Zhang B. (2010, October). Accessibility by demonstration: Enabling end users to …
  5. Cardon P., Getchell K., Carradini S., Fleischmann C., Stapp J. (2023). Generative AI in…
Show all 46 →
  1. Accessibility vs. usability: Where is the dividing line?
  2. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
  3. Costanza-Chock S., Raji I. D., Buolamwini J. (2022, June). Who audits the auditors? Recommendations from a fi…
  4. 10.4324/9781315224060-18
  5. 10.4324/9781003288008
  6. 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2017.10.011
  7. Glazko K. S., Yamagami M., Desai A., Mack K. A., Potluri V., Xu X., Mankoff J. (2023). An autoethnographic ca…
  8. 10.1007/978-3-031-14447-9_24
  9. A web for everyone: Designing accessible user experiences
  10. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  11. Hutchinson B., Prabhakaran V., Denton E., Webster K., Zhong Y., Denuyl S. (2020). Socia…
  12. Communication Design Quarterly
  13. International Labour Organization (2016). Disability and work. Re…
  14. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  15. 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2007.10.006
  16. 10.1177/1461444816675438
  17. Long D., Magerko B. (2020, April). What is AI literacy? Competencies and design considerations. In Proceeding…
  18. 10.1016/j.caeai.2022.100056
  19. 10.4324/9781315231501
  20. 10.1145/3356727
  21. Morrison C., Cutrell E., Dhareshwar A., Doherty K., Thieme A., Taylor A. (2017, October). Imagining artificia…
  22. Communication Design Quarterly
  23. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
  24. Oswal S. K. (2019, October). Breaking the exclusionary boundary between user experience and access: Steps tow…
  25. 10.37514/TPC-B.2022.1381.2.09
  26. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
  27. Park J. S., Bragg D., Kamar E., Morris M. R. (2021, March). Designing an online infrastructure for collecting…
  28. Ready to wear: A rhetoric of wearable computers and reality-shifting media
  29. Pradhan A., Mehta K., Findlater L. (2018, April). “Accessibility came by accident”: Use of voice-controlled i…
  30. 10.1007/s10209-011-0259-3
  31. Towards a standard for identifying and managing bias in artificial intelligence
  32. Communication Design Quarterly
  33. Silva C. A., de Oliveira A. F., Mateus D. A., Costa H. A. X., Freire A. P. (2019, October). Types of problems…
  34. 10.1007/s43681-020-00004-5
  35. 10.1145/3362077.3362086
  36. 10.24434/j.scoms.2022.01.3064
  37. Computers and Composition
  38. Wang A., Ramaswamy V. V., Russakovsky O. (2022, June). Towards intersectionality in machine learning: Includi…
  39. WebAIM (2023). The WebAIM million: The 2023 report on the accessibility of the top 1,00…
  40. Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (2023). https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#p…
  41. New labor forum