As a frontend developer, I use AI generously in my daily workflow. Not only does it increase my efficiency at work, but it also frees up more time for improving the features I’ve built.

AI is able to build things in minutes or even seconds that would take humans hours to do. But its biggest strength is also its biggest flaw. AI is, at its core, a tool used to imitate human knowledge in an advanced capacity. So while it’s able to produce work faster, it also inherits all our biases.

It’s important to address these biases when building products to ensure that what we’re developing can be used by everyone.

A common mistake developers make is assuming that “everyone” refers to people like them. But this isn’t the case.

There are over 1 billion people in the world with some form of disability, meaning they require special accommodations to use certain products. This is why accessibility should be front and center in our development process, and also why it’s dangerous to remove the focus from humans and rely solely on artificial intelligence.

It’s simply too easy to slip into a “works for me” mentality and ignore those who are unable to use these products. There are also legal ramifications for inaccessible products, so it’s actually imperative that businesses make a deliberate effort to include accessibility in their development process to avoid lawsuits or fines.

In this article, we’ll take a look at areas where AI falls short on accessibility and how we can best harness AI for an optimized workflow — while still building products that everyone can use.

Note: This article assumes basic knowledge of HTML, JavaScript, and web accessibility practices.

Accessibility issues in AI-generated code

When working with AI agents, it’s easier to avoid accessibility pitfalls once we’re aware of them. These are some of the glaring faults in the field of accessibility:

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