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Today, digital accessibility is truly global, and momentum continues to accelerate and expand across social, political, financial, and legal sectors. The synergy is powerful, and shifts in one region will often both mirror and inspire developments in other areas. It’s essential to monitor all impactful global developments accordingly.

This is especially true for regulatory activity. Australia has a longstanding commitment to accessibility, and we’re increasingly seeing harmonization on key themes and standards with Europe and other regions around the globe.

The history of accessibility in Australia

Australia has demonstrated a decades-long commitment to accessibility, with the 1992 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) being a significant milestone. Other watershed moments include the Maguire v. Sydney Olympic Games Organising Committee case in 2000, which affirmed that the DDA applied to web accessibility, and which was resolved through an AUS$20,000 reward negotiated by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). In 2015, the Australian grocery store chain Coles agreed to make its online shopping site more accessible as a result of legal action.

In this post, we’ll explore the most recent updates to Australia’s regulatory landscape to understand what they mean for organizations doing business in Australia, as well as for the rest of the world. We’ll specifically focus on beneficial actions and outcomes associated with compliance.

Recent accessibility updates in Australia

Three major accessibility shifts occurred in Australia in 2025:

The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) affirmed WCAG 2.2 Level AA as the minimum standard.
The AHRC guidelines clarified that accessibility obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) extend to technologies such as SaaS platforms, AI tools, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and mobile apps.
The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) introduced the Digital Experience Policy, which mandates that all new government websites and digital services must meet digital inclusion, digital access, and digital performance standards.

Together, these updates represent a comprehensive re-scoping of what digital accessibility is and entails.

Australia is unique in many ways when it comes to its expansive approach to digital accessibility, and as we’ll discuss later in the post, there is additional guidance around testing for EN 301 549 that you’re recommended to follow.

But first, let’s examine each of these updates in more detail.

Australia’s update to WCAG 2.2 Level AA

In April 2025, the AHRC announced new guidelines focused on meeting legal obligations under the 1992 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), with a specific focus on digital products and services. As these changes are focused on driving compliance with the DDA, they cover public-facing digital services in both the public and private sectors. In other words, the guidelines apply to both business and government organizations.

Central to these guidelines is the recommendation that organizations align with WCAG 2.2 Level AA as the minimum accessibility benchmark, representing a significant change from WCAG 2.0, which had been the prevailing recommendation throughout the previous decade.

If you are not familiar, WCAG 2.2 AA contains 86 success criteria in total, including nine new additions beyond version 2.1. Of these, six apply at Levels A and AA, all of which are required for full WCAG 2.2 AA conformance. Together, these new additions address three areas of priority:

Pointer and keyboard usability. Three new criteria address how users interact with interfaces through keyboards and pointer devices:

2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum): Level AA
2.5.7 Dragging Movements: Level AA
2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum): Level AA

These criteria are particularly relevant as product teams design for the full range of assistive technologies and input methods in the market today.

Cognitive accessibility. Two new criteria reduce the cognitive burden placed on users during authentication and multi-step processes:

3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum): Level AA
3.3.7 Redundant Entry: Level A

These specific criteria reflect the recognition that accessibility obligations extend to cognitive considerations, not just visual and motor ones.

Consistent navigation support. One new criterion ensures that help mechanisms appear in a predictable location across pages:

3.2.6 Consistent Help: Level A

This requirement supports users who rely on consistent page structure, including those using assistive technologies.

Australia’s alignment with WCAG 2.2 AA dovetails with developments in Europe, where a new update to EN 301 549 (version 4.1.1), anticipated later in 2026, is expected to include WCAG 2.2 AA.

In a recent article, Deque’s Chief Information Accessibility Officer, Glenda Sims, noted that the “EN standard goes far beyond just websites, including a wide range of ICT products and services such as websites, software, mobile apps, electronic documents, hardware interfaces, and communications technologies.” Regarding EN 301 549 v4.1.1’s pending inclusion of WCAG 2.2. Level AA, Glenda summarized Deque’s guidance on these new developments as follows:

“Deque recommends targeting EN 301 549 + WCAG 2.2 AA now. Doing so helps you avoid redundant remediation work when the formal update lands in 2026. If your accessibility strategy is still focused only on websites, it’s time to widen your lens. And if your roadmap doesn’t account for alignment with EN 301 549 and WCAG 2.2, that gap could become visible during procurement reviews, audits, or public reporting.”

The key takeaway here is, given that EN 301 549 does not yet cover 2.2, the best approach for your organization going forward is to test for both EN 301 549 and WCAG 2.2 AA.

Let’s now move on to the second key update, the AHRC’s broadened definition of accessibility.

New guidelines for digital products and services

As stated by the AHRC, the “new guidelines on equal access to digital goods and services build on previous Commission guidance to reflect advances in digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, facial recognition and other biometric technologies, mobile apps, social media, and self-service machines.”

The AHRC made clear its core motivation for introducing the new guidelines:

“Technology has evolved since the Disability Discrimination Act was introduced. The ways in which goods and services are accessed and developed has continued to change and we now predominantly operate in a digital environment.”

In the foreword to the new guidelines, Rosemary Kayess, Disability Discrimination Commissioner, speaks to why these updates to the Disability Discrimination Act are so vital:

“It’s not just about assistive technology or technology to enhance the lives of people with disability – it requires all technology to be designed with people with disability in mind and to be inclusive and responsive to the needs of people with disability so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of technology.”

The new guidelines are arranged into three chapters:

Overview of the Disability Discrimination Act and how it applies to digital goods and services.
Recommendations for organizations and businesses on how to provide equal access to digital goods and services.
Standards and guidelines that apply in Australia.

You can access the full guidelines online, but here are five actionable takeaways we’ve assembled for you:

Understand the full scope of what the guidelines cover.

The AHRC guidelines clarify that accessibility obligations extend beyond websites to include SaaS and PaaS platforms, AI-generated services, CAPTCHAs, two-factor authentication, extended reality, QR codes, mapping applications, and digital interfaces to physical devices and IoT. Understanding the full scope of your obligations is the foundation of a strong and sustainable accessibility program.

Put a formal plan in place when accessibility gaps exist.

An Alternate Access Plan documents how people with disabilities can access equivalent services while your remediation efforts are underway. Your plan should describe a comparable experience and be supported by a remediation roadmap with specific dates.

Address accessibility early in your development cycle.

The later accessibility issues are identified in the development cycle, the more costly they are to fix. By embedding accessibility across ideation, design, development, testing, and maintenance, your organization can lower risk, reduce costs, and deliver digital experiences that are usable by everyone.

Extend equal access responsibilities across your vendor ecosystem.

Your organization can contract out the provision of digital goods and services, but you cannot contract out your equal access responsibilities. Accessibility clauses and assurances should be included in every contract of service, protecting both the people you serve and your organization.

Ensure biometric authentication always includes an accessible alternative.

Wherever your organization uses biometric methods—fingerprints, face ID, retinal scanning, or voice ID—you should ensure that alternative identification and control options are available. These methods can create barriers for people with disabilities who may not be able to provide such information easily, or at all.

As a reminder, these changes are focused on compliance with the DDA and accordingly apply to public-facing digital services in both the public and private sectors.

The third update we’re going to explore, the introduction of the Digital Experience Policy by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), focuses explicitly on government services.

The Digital Experience Policy

The Digital Experience Policy, mandated by the Australian government, came into effect on January 1, 2025, and is supported by four standards that form the core requirements for government services.

The motivation for establishing the new policy mirrors that of the AHRC guidelines, in that the government acknowledges the need to keep pace with evolving technologies:

“Over the past decade, digital government services have expanded rapidly, providing new ways for people and businesses to access information, complete tasks, and seek assistance. However, a history of siloed delivery and uneven digital maturity has created fragmented service experiences. A coordinated focus on digital experience helps address these challenges. It ensures that services are designed and delivered in a way that is user-friendly, inclusive, and efficient.”

The new policy contains four standards:

Digital Service Standard: sets the requirements for designing and delivering digital government services.
Digital Inclusion Standard: sets the requirements for inclusive and accessible digital government experiences.
Digital Access Standard: sets the requirements for government agencies to reduce duplication of entry points, supporting unified access to digital government services for people and business.
Digital Performance Standard: sets the approach for monitoring government digital service performance and using insights to drive ongoing improvement.

You can find additional details about what the policy applies to on the Australian government website, but per the general guidance provided by the agency, the policy applies to informational and transactional digital services that are:

subject to the requirements of the Investment Oversight Framework (IOF)
new or replacement public-facing services
new staff-facing services
all existing public-facing services

What your business needs to do, and why

Given the rigor and comprehensive nature of Australia’s new policies and guidelines, it is essential that your organization take a proactive approach to digital accessibility, with a focus on four essential practices:

Shift left

Being proactive and shifting left means incorporating accessibility practices early in design and development and catching accessibility issues sooner. By shifting left, your organization will:

Save money: Fixing defects after they reach production is costly. 
Increase velocity: Catching defects sooner means less time spent fixing them later, which in turn allows increased velocity towards new features.
Create better products: Accessible products are better for all customers.

Shifting left to address accessibility issues early is efficient and cost-effective. Fixing those defects after they reach production can result in significant delays and far higher costs, as well as potential consumer complaints and potential regulatory inquiry.

Automate testing

With automated and AI-guided testing, design, development, and QA teams can find and fix up to 80% of issues by volume without needing deep accessibility expertise. That means fewer reworks, smoother handoffs, and fewer blockers down the line.

Provide role-specific training and tools

By providing training for individual roles across the software development lifecycle (SDLC), you’ll help your teams maintain momentum even when faced with more challenging problems. By providing specialized tools tailored to the unique needs of different roles, you can help ensure that everyone continues to achieve their specific goals. For example:

Designer: Avoid creating defects.
Developer: Get instant code feedback.
Tester: Standardize defect management.
Product owner: Visualize progress.
Accessibility program manager: Monitor performance.

Continuously monitor regulations

Your organization must continuously monitor the latest regulatory changes so it can swiftly adapt and maintain compliance. Your accessibility policy should automatically trigger an efficient and effective response when changes do occur. The updates we’ve highlighted in this article are just one example of how the regulatory and policy landscape can quickly evolve. Continuous monitoring is your most strategic way to ensure you stay ahead of changes that can impact your organization and introduce legal, financial, and reputational risk for your company.

The benefits of acting swiftly and proactively

As digital accessibility regulations and policies continue to evolve across the global stage, organizations must build and maintain sustainable accessibility programs to stay ahead. Depending on your current state of program maturity, your efforts in this regard will vary in complexity and investment. The good news is that the benefits of compliance and of offering accessible products and services are wide-ranging—in Australia and globally. These benefits include:

Expanded audience reach. You can successfully engage 5.5 million Australians with disabilities by aligning with WCAG 2.2.
Global alignment. By aligning with multi-national standards such as the EAA, you can open doors to broader markets.
Brand leadership. A focus on advanced digital accessibility solutions can drive cross-functional innovation, help you outperform competitors, and build lasting customer loyalty.
Reduced risk. Compliance with applicable regulations and policies, and conformance with relevant standards, can help limit your exposure to damaging legal, financial, and reputational risks.

Australia continues to take a leadership role in global digital accessibility, and whether your organization is in Australia, doing business with Australia, or simply keeping pace with global developments, now is the ideal time to ensure you’re taking the right steps to maintain long-term compliance and achieve your accessibility goals.

Contact Deque today for expert guidance on ensuring you have the right strategy and tools in place.

Aparna Pasi

Aparna Pasi is Vice President of Professional Services, APAC at Deque Systems, with nearly 20 years of experience in software engineering and accessibility consulting. She drives Deque’s mission by empowering organizations to build inclusive digital experiences, offering executive-level advisory and accessibility risk strategies to growth-stage companies. Aparna also contributes to the broader accessibility profession as an active WCAG Working Group Member at W3C. Throughout her career, she has led cross-cultural teams delivering accessible, compliant solutions across mobile and web technologies in industries such as banking, e-commerce, gaming, and e-learning. Aparna holds a Master of Science in Information Systems and is IAAP certified as CPWA, WAS, and CPACC.

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Tags: accessibility compliance , Web Accessibility

Dear Axe-con community,

You did it!

You came, you shared, you taught, and you learned. Across more than 45 sessions, you asked and answered questions, shared and gained new insights, and connected with thousands upon thousands of other accessibility advocates and allies.

You literally made history, and the collective energy and momentum you’ve created will carry us all through one of the most important years in the history of this mission.

Because Axe-con 2026 is a two-day conference, we needed to cover a lot of ground. For day two, we got right down to business, with intensive sessions such as Accessible by Default: Scaling Design Systems with AI-Assisted Development, Scaling Accessibility in a Complex Enterprise: Lessons from Audits, Adoption, and Shared Practices, and Is Something Fundamental Still Missing From the Accessibility Ecosystem?.

Given how complex these topics can be, we’re fortunate to have charismatic presenters who are irrepressibly creative when it comes to bringing their material to life. Here’s just one delightful example, from Stéphanie Walter’s presentations on How to Convince People to Care and Invest in Accessibility:

Based on reactions to her keynote today, Haben Girma is certainly beloved for her ability to balance wit and wisdom as she shares her thoughts and perspectives. Here are just a handful of chat responses she inspired:

“Thank you so much, Haben!! Wonderful session!! My heart is full!!!”

“Great presentation, was laughing and crying.”

“Oh my gosh, yes, I could listen to Haben talk all day.”

“Who’s cutting onions again? :’) Loved this!”

By definition, the mission of digital accessibility focuses a great deal on technology and on removing barriers. And while this makes sense, Haben pointed out that the barriers that are most important to remove are not necessarily technological ones: “Technology has opened so many doors. Deafblindness is not my barrier. My biggest barrier is ableism.”

It’s not uncommon for some people to believe that the cost of ableism is one paid only by people with disabilities, but as Haben reminded us, that’s not the whole story:

As anyone who attends Axe-con knows, the quotable insights come quickly, and from multiple directions. It’s one of the many reasons why post-conference access to on-demand session recordings is such a valuable benefit!

Here are a few more of our day-two favorites:

daniel axecon26

With so many different sessions playing out across four different tracks, it’s a given that a lot of topics get covered. However, as we noted in our day-one post, certain themes do repeatedly emerge, and AI seemed to crop up just about everywhere.

One of the most striking examples was Jesse Beach’s session, Accessible by Default: Scaling Design Systems with AI-Assisted Development. Jesse is a software engineering manager at Meta, and she shared with the Axe-con community some pretty remarkable insights into how AI has had a profound impact on their accessibility work:

“We gave our AI coding tool examples of good accessibility fixes and applied it systematically across our codebase. The results: Our solve rate for accessibility label issues jumped to the 90% range—solving nearly all of them automatically. We’ve landed over 2,500 accessibility fixes this way, with another 5,000 queued. Months of work, completed in weeks. And here’s the key: The AI isn’t inventing new accessibility patterns. It’s applying our patterns—the ones defined in our Design System—consistently across the codebase.”

These are the kinds of insights that make Axe-con so worth it, because they’re the kinds of results that inspire action.

An immense amount of planning goes into creating Axe-con, and the action has been heavy for months. And, of course, there is a massive amount of action that happens during the event itself—especially in the chats.

It’s also important to remember that the action doesn’t stop when the presentations conclude. All you have to do is head over to the Axe-con Discord community, and you’ll immediately realize the conversations are most definitely continuing!

In addition to the general threads, every session has its own dedicated channel, and the presenters themselves often join in the discourse. Some of the conversations really get going! Lainey Feingold’s day-one session, The US Digital Accessibility Legal Update, inspired a thread that was nearly 40 comments long!

The Axe-con Discord community is an excellent place to directly witness how accessibility advocacy travels from the conference out into the larger world. This comment from someone who attended How to Convince People to Care and Invest in Accessibility is a great example:

“I loved this session! I have an opportunity to help a local branch of a national nonprofit improve its communications and website in a temporary part-time role. This session was inspiring and gave me so many ideas.”

There have been so many amazing comments in Discord, but all of us at Deque were especially moved by the one shared below. Not because the individual said such nice things about us (although we certainly appreciated that!), but because it’s such a clear distillation of why Axe-con and the Axe-con community matter so much.

We’re reprinting it in full because it reminds us that the impact of this event is measured not by what happens during the conference, but by what happens next:

“I just love this conference so much. I feel like I never get an opportunity to talk accessibility all day, and while this is only my second Axe-con, I just feel so appreciative of Deque for all their hard work and giving the accessibility community a safe place to learn from one another, advocate together, and more (while keeping it free and online!). My LinkedIn feed is finally free of bot-generated content because of all the great people from here that I now follow.

And thank you to everyone for entertaining us in the chat, keeping it REAL, and also for the spicy takes. Just as disability is dynamic and ever-changing, accessibility is as well, and we need all of us to continue to call people in before calling people out (I literally think of this from Kai’s talk last year at least once a day).”

Many of our moderators and presenters were wearing our new Axe-con shirts during their sessions, with the words “A11Y Vibes” across the chest, and it seems safe to say that those were the vibes we were all feeling. What an amazing couple of days it’s been!

If we could thank each and every one of you individually, we would. Because the truth is, while we talk a lot about “the community” as if it’s a single entity, it isn’t. It’s actually made up of tens of thousands of very special people, each of whom is essential to the success of this mission.

To wrap this up, we’re going to go all the way back to something Preety Kumar said during her opening remarks: “You are the ones who will take the insights from these two days and turn them into the momentum required to lead us through this new era.”

Are you ready?

Then let’s go!

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Deque Systems

Deque is the global leader in digital accessibility, helping the world’s top enterprises build inclusive products, services, and experiences and achieve lasting compliance. Recognized by leading industry analysts for its AI-powered tools, comprehensive services, and developer-trusted solutions, Deque delivers the industry’s most complete accessibility offering. The Axe platform, anchored by Axe-core, has more than 4 billion downloads and 800,000 installed extensions, making it the global standard for accessibility testing. As a pioneer of people-first accessibility, Deque applies a human-in-the-loop approach that blends expert insight with AI innovation to advance its mission of digital equality for all.

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Tags: Accessibility , axe-con , news , Web Accessibility

From the tactical and technical to the educational and inspirational, Axe-con really does cover it all.

What a first day!

Leading with the Axe Awards was a lovely way to set the tone and remind us all of something Katrina Lee later said with perfect clarity during the Shifting left: Building an ecosystem to scale accessibility: session:

If we had to pick one theme that resonated above all else during day one of Axe-con 2026, it was probably this one: “Accessibility happens because of people.”

Deque CEO and founder Preety Kumar spoke to this truth at the very beginning of her opening keynote, when she said, “The Axe-con experience is a testament to what happens when a community stops wishing for change, and starts demanding it. Your presence here is the heartbeat of this movement.”

And of course, it’s no surprise that this theme was the centerpiece of Dr. Rana El-Kaliouby’s keynote, Human-Centric AI for Digital Accessibility: Agency, Inclusion, and the Future of Interfaces:

As the founder of Affectiva, Rana El-Kaliouby pioneered the concept of “Emotion AI,” and her passion for this topic remains central to who she is and the work she does. Her message resonated with so many in our Axe-con community: “Building with empathy and emotional intelligence in mind is so key.” It was truly fascinating to experience her thinking on what human-centric AI means in the context of digital accessibility.

Speaking of community, we had ample evidence of just how truly global the Axe community really is, with guests joining from the Czech Republic, Germany, Canada, Italy, Scotland, Spain, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, and many more. All told, we had just under 100 countries represented! In the US, we had attendees from literally all over the map—from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, and more to the east, Nebraska, Minnesota, Michigan, and Colorado between the coasts, and California, Oregon, and Washington out west.

We mentioned the tactical-to-inspirational spectrum at the beginning of this post, and Preety’s opening remarks covered the whole range. She provided a 3-pillar approach to accessibility strategy …

Get leadership to buy in. Use legal momentum to move accessibility to a non-negotiable leadership priority.
Equip your teams. Strategy fails without literacy.
Get a baseline. You can’t fix what you haven’t measured.

… while also reinforcing for everyone at Axe-con that we possess the power to make positive change:

“Axe-con is the medium where knowledge-sharing becomes progress-making.”

Part of what makes Axe-con so powerful is precisely how inspiration translates into action, and as Preety pointed out, this is a remarkable moment for digital accessibility: “We have the tools, we have the standards, we have the deadlines. We just need the will to seize the moment.”

AI has quickly emerged as one of the most powerful tools at our disposal, and given AI’s transformative nature, it makes sense that it came up in multiple presentations. Attendees seemed in particular to enjoy how Anna Cook handled the topic in her session, Accessibility in the End of Deterministic Design (Again), with one attendee putting it perfectly:

Anna has spoken at Axe-con before, and her sessions are always highly regarded for insights like these:

As Preety and Deque CTO Dylan Barrel noted during their opening presentation, our new era of digital accessibility is being reshaped in real time by the twin forces of technology and regulation—specifically, AI and the European Accessibility Act (EAA)—and today’s session on EAA compliance was much anticipated.

In addition to an impressive array of regulatory detail and insight provided by Otto Sleeking (Partner, Taylor Wessing) and Moïse Akbaraly (Founder of Ipedis, a Deque partners), Matthew Luken (SVP, Global Programs & Regulatory Affairs; European Partnerships) offered some plainspoken guidance that should be of practical use to any organization navigating EAA complexities in different countries:

We mentioned above that Anna Cook is a returning Axe-con speaker. Another presenter we were thrilled to have back is the inimitable Kai Wong, whose presentation on how to “ditch the dull” and “craft accessibility presentations that inspire action and model inclusive, accessible best practices” was a masterclass in doing exactly what she set out to help us all do. And in addition to being everything but dull, her session was also full of really valuable perspective:

Actionable guidance was another theme that was prevalent throughout all of today’s presentations, and it was something Peter Bossley (Sr. Manager, Accessibility, Thomson Reuters) explicitly brought up during Integrating Axe for automated testing in a distributed engineering environment:

It was fascinating to see all the ways human-and-AI collaboration came up in different presentations. Everyone who attended Sam Smith’s presentation on Proactive Inclusion: Embedding Accessibility into the AI Revolution at Coinbase was particularly impressed and grateful for how Sam patiently took everyone through the do’s and don’ts of how to make this collaboration a successful one:

Sam is the Senior Staff Accessibility Lead at Coinbase, and when he said, “I highly recommend you treat AI as a collaborator, focus on refining prompts through continuous feedback,” it was clear he was coming from a place of deep organizational and personal experience.

Personal experience is an essential component of accessibility success—a point made brilliantly by Angela Young (title) during their presentation on The Myth of Neutral Design: How Accessibility Gets Lost in Objective Systems:

Day one of Axe-con 2026 is an experience tens of thousands of us from around the world have now lived and enjoyed together. If you were in attendance, you know that what we’ve captured in this post only barely scratches the surface of all the brilliance that was on offer today.

The beauty of Axe-con registration is that you’ll be able to rewatch everything that inspired and moved you, and watch the sessions you weren’t able to make for the first time. And if you registered and weren’t able to attend today, you can watch today’s sessions on demand later, and you can join us live tomorrow!

We can’t wait for it to be day two, and we’re looking forward to everyone joining us again. Until then, we’ll leave you with a wonderful reminder from The Accessible Design Specialists Playbook, presented by Pawel Wodkowski (Lead Designer, Atlassian):

That’s right, folks, accessibility is a team sport, and as we sign off from day one of Axe-con 2026, what else can we say but “Go team!”

Deque Systems

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Tags: Accessibility , axe-con , news , Web Accessibility

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Axe-con is about the people. The global digital accessibility community. The change agents and progress-makers who are tirelessly advancing the mission of digital equality.

The tactical focus of Axe-con may be on knowledge-sharing, but the vibe is all about connection and celebration. You’ll feel that vibe throughout the conference, and especially when the Axe-con awards are revealed—a moment that is always one of the most anticipated experiences of the year.

The Axe Awards represent a very special opportunity to honor and celebrate the people and organizations doing notably impactful work in accessibility. We have four awards to present: the Accessibility Culture Award, the Accessibility at Scale Award, the Longstanding Commitment to Accessibility Award, and the Jim Thatcher Lifetime Achievement Award.

Are you ready to celebrate? Let’s meet our Axe Award winners!

ADP: 2026 Accessibility Culture Award

Accessibility culture deepens and expands as inclusion is shared across teams. It’s not about one group of specialists. It’s about the entire organization unifying around the mission, embracing positive change, and taking the right tactical steps to achieve meaningful transformation.

Deque recognizes ADP as the 2026 Accessibility Culture Award recipient and honors Kelsey Hall’s leadership, as well as the tireless work of the ADP Accessibility Team, including Yulia Sarviro, Gouri Khanvilkar, Stephanie Brooks, KJ Schmidt, Julia Cotton, and Dawn Schakett, in making accessibility part of everyday work across the organization and building a true culture of accessibility.

At ADP, accessibility begins with strong executive sponsorship, supported by policies that establish accessibility as a quality requirement. ADP has embedded accessibility into how teams plan, build, and improve their software, shifting from reactive remediation to a standard development practice. The organization reinforces this approach through transparent reporting, an annual roadmap, and a maturity model that clarifies responsibilities and expectations for application teams. This success is in large part due to the many product managers, designers, engineers, and quality teams who implement these best practices into their work each day.

Education is also central to sustaining this culture. Employees complete accessibility training through Deque University and gain the skills to design and develop accessible experiences independently, expanding ownership beyond a single team. Regular reporting emphasizes progress, completion rates are tracked, and individuals and teams are empowered to apply new skills in real time.

Through sustained leadership, workforce education, and operational accountability, ADP has made accessibility not just part of how the company operates, but part of its culture. The 2026 Accessibility Culture Award recognizes ADP’s impact and achievements.

Nestlé: 2026 Accessibility at Scale Award

Each year, Deque presents the Accessibility at Scale Award to recognize an organization that expands a sustainable accessibility program across its global operations.

Deque is proud to recognize Nestlé as the recipient of the 2026 Accessibility at Scale Award. The company set extremely ambitious goals, and then delivered against them with remarkable speed and efficiency by prioritizing collaboration and coordination across teams and stakeholders.

Managing a broad and complex portfolio of brand and market websites worldwide, Nestlé implemented a coordinated model that balanced centralized visibility with distributed ownership. Using a combination of Deque tools and training resources, the company maintained portfolio-level oversight while bringing accessibility earlier into development workflows and enabling teams to build accessible experiences independently.

The impact was clear: accessibility improved across Nestlé’s web properties while overall accessibility maturity strengthened across the organization. Through unwavering commitment to their goals, they demonstrated that accessibility can scale across a complex digital ecosystem.

For achieving meaningful progress at a global level, Deque is pleased to recognize Nestlé as the recipient of the 2026 Accessibility at Scale Award.

Eli Lilly and Company: 2026 Longstanding Commitment to Accessibility Award

Deque is proud to honor Eli Lilly and Company as the 2026 recipient.

Eli Lilly and Company approaches digital accessibility holistically, removing barriers for both employees and customers. The company is committed to creating digital experiences that are easy to use and accessible for all people, regardless of ability or technology.

By establishing digital accessibility as an essential component of everything from customer experience and health literacy to company culture and employer brand, Lilly is able to launch and sustain initiatives that foster cross-functional alignment and secure multi-year funding, helping to ensure continued progress.

As a company built on core values of respect for people, integrity, and excellence, Lilly holds its accessibility strategy to the same standard. By setting clear expectations and accountability across teams, accessibility is treated with the same rigor as other critical business priorities.

Through sustained leadership and clear standards, Lilly demonstrates its commitment to expanding access and participation for everyone. By taking a holistic approach and committing to long-term, sustainable success, the company is ensuring that digital accessibility remains a consistent priority.

For these reasons and more, we are honored to recognize Eli Lilly and Company as the recipient of Deque’s 2026 Longstanding Commitment to Accessibility Award.

Alice Wong: 2026 Jim Thatcher Lifetime Achievement Award

The Axe-con Lifetime Achievement Award is presented posthumously to Alice Wong, a visionary leader whose work transformed how the world understands disability, power, and community.

Alice was not simply an advocate for accessibility. She reshaped the narrative. Through the Disability Visibility Project and her groundbreaking books, including Disability Visibility, she elevated first-person stories of disabled people and insisted that disabled voices lead conversations about policy, design, technology, and culture.

She was fierce. She challenged institutions. She refused tokenism. She named injustice clearly and without apology. And in doing so, she created space for others to speak and to be heard.

Yet alongside that fierceness was something equally powerful: joy. Alice made it clear that the hardship many people with disabilities face is not inherent to disability; it is the result of exclusion, inaccessibility, and ableism. And still, she insisted that joy, creativity, humor, and community belong fully to people with disabilities now; not after the world “gets it right.”

She encouraged all of us not to wait for a perfect world before claiming moments of happiness. Justice, work, and joy were not opposites in her life; they were companions.

In February 2025, Alice delivered a keynote at Axe-con that many of us will never forget. Just eight months before her passing, she stood exactly where she had always stood: amplifying others, challenging systems, and calling us to do better.

Her legacy is not only the work she produced. It is the voices she amplified. The leaders she encouraged. The community she strengthened. And it is the example she gave us of how to speak with clarity, center disabled voices, embrace joy without minimizing injustice, and continue the work even when progress feels slow.

For a lifetime of transformative impact, unapologetic truth-telling, and radical joy, we honor Alice Wong.

And we encourage everyone to accept the responsibility that comes with honoring Alice. Because the greatest way we can honor Alice is not with our words, but with our actions; by refusing to let accessibility be delayed, diluted, or dismissed. Her vision was clear. Our task now is to make accessibility a permanent reality.

Looking ahead

As Deque founder and CEO Preety Kumar has noted, there is a massive groundswell of energy happening in the world of digital accessibility.

Profoundly impactful regulatory advancements, such as the European Accessibility Act, are ensuring that digital accessibility is now truly a global mission. Innovative technological developments, such as agentic AI, are making it possible to achieve global digital accessibility at scale.

However, as exciting as this moment is, and as exhilarating as it is to think about the milestones 2026 has in store for us, we must remember that regulation and technology alone don’t drive progress—people do. And that’s what the Axe Awards are all about: celebrating the people who seize every moment to drive this mission forward. Today, we celebrate our four awardees. Every day, we celebrate you all. Thank you for the work that you do. You are making a difference.

Deque Systems

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Axe MCP Server is now included in Deque’s Axe DevTools for Web bundle at no additional cost, giving our customers immediate access to AI-powered remediation capabilities. With Axe MCP Server, you can enhance development workflows and start fixing accessibility issues earlier, empowering your teams to move faster, minimize rework, and scale accessibility with confidence. First introduced at Axe-con 2025, we’re excited to announce that Axe MCP Server is now available to all Axe DevTools for Web customers.

“We’re seeing amazing feedback from customers who have already adopted Axe MCP Server in their IDE. With Axe MCP Server as part of Axe DevTools for Web, developers can contribute to accessibility earlier in the software development lifecycle, all while using existing tools and their preferred AI coding agent.” —Dylan Barrell, CTO, Deque

Meet developers where they are and empower them with trusted guidance

When accessibility issues aren’t addressed early in development, they slip into production, where they’re harder and more expensive to fix, and where compliance risk increases. With Axe MCP Server, teams can address digital accessibility earlier by bringing trusted Axe expertise directly into AI coding agents as part of existing development workflows. They can analyze and test code, receive guidance on fixes, and validate accessibility directly where development happens.

Designed to work within the tools developers already use, Axe MCP Server combines AI-powered analysis and testing with proven accessibility remediation guidance, making it effective for team members of all experience levels. It’s quick to implement and delivers tailored guidance without requiring deep accessibility expertise.

Align with developer workflows and increase tool adoption

Axe MCP Server works seamlessly with any tool that supports the Model Context Protocol, including GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, VS Code, and more. Fixes happen where development happens, through flexible coding-agent integrations and by configuring the development environment to call Axe MCP Server to automatically validate accessibility fixes—no extra steps required. This means more automation, less friction, and greater adoption by your teams.

Get trusted fixes with real testing and remediation guidance

Early accessibility fixes require testing real, rendered experiences. Through its direct connection to the Axe Platform, Axe MCP Server brings enterprise-grade accuracy and real browser testing into development workflows. Plus, it connects to Deque University’s comprehensive knowledge base, providing the industry’s most trusted, standards-aligned guidance.

Analyze, remediate, and validate with one AI prompt

With a single AI prompt, coding agents signal Axe MCP Server to analyze and test code, offer remediation, and validate accessibility fixes. By combining code analysis with real browser testing, teams can close the accessibility testing loop sooner and with greater confidence.

The impact: trusted accessibility fixes earlier, aligned with your team’s workflow and tools

With Axe MCP Server as part of Axe DevTools for Web, your teams can deliver accessibility fixes right from the start, rather than during QA or in production, without changing how they work. You’ll save time and money and lay the foundations for an accessibility program that’s built to scale.

And this is just the beginning. Axe MCP Server will power AI agents across the software development lifecycle, bringing Axe Platform features, such as automated intelligent guided tests and advanced automated rules, directly to your preferred AI agents. This will increase automated coverage so you can address more accessibility issues earlier and faster.

Whether you’re already using Axe DevTools for Web or exploring it for the first time, you can request a demo today to learn how Axe MCP Server fits into your workflows.

Harris Schneiderman

Harris Schneiderman is a web developer with a strong passion for digital equality. He works at Deque Systems as the Senior Product Manager of axe DevTools building awesome web applications. He wrote Cauldron (Deque's pattern library), Dragon Drop, and is the lead developer on axe DevTools Pro. When he is not at work, he still finds time to contribute to numerous open source projects.

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Tags: axe MCP Server , Axe Platform , news

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I recently had the opportunity to deliver a keynote, titled “Roadmap checkups: Ensure resiliency (PDF),” at the IAAP EU and Vially Accessibility Event in Dublin. My focus was on the importance of accessibility program roadmaps for long-term program success; specifically, I addressed how your roadmap must:

Include a 3–5 year forward view
Emphasize tasks with sufficient lead time for success
Be robust, flexible, and positive
Operate at an enterprise level
Be rooted in measurement

In this post, I’ll go into greater detail on how to ensure that you’re optimizing your accessibility roadmaps. I’ll begin by explaining why checking in on your roadmap now is so critical.

You can experience my full keynote in this video:

Why are roadmaps and their checkups so important?

When organizations come to Deque for strategic consulting, one of the questions we ask is whether they have a 3–5-year accessibility program roadmap published at the enterprise or companywide level. In 2025, 50% of our respondents said that they didn’t have this type of roadmap. For those who did, only 15% said they’d reviewed it within the last 12 months. On a slightly more positive note, 25% said they’d reviewed it in the last 24 months.

This indicates that while many accessibility teams are working, they’re doing so without a documented plan or are unable to check in on the plans they do have. This leads us to believe that many organizations are in reactive mode and struggling to get ahead and escape the break-fix cycle.

We often encountered programs that were less mature than their organizations believed they were. To make our assessments, we use Deque’s Digital Accessibility Maturity Model (DAMM), which features a ratings scale that runs from “not started” to “optimized”:

0 – Not started

1 – Informed

2 – Defined

3 – Repeatable

4 – Monitor and Control

5 – Optimized

Through our analysis, we found that 95% of the accessibility programs we assessed were at maturity levels 0–2, while only 1% were firmly in level 3, the point at which a program shifts from reactive to proactive.

What we also saw in the data is that successful programs have roadmaps that drive maturity, with program administrators constantly checking to ensure they’re on track.

You need a mature accessibility program

Global accessibility is evolving rapidly. In Europe, the European Accessibility Act represents a once-in-a-generation regulatory inflection point that is all but certain to be a catalyst for similar regulatory actions around the world. In short, no matter where your organization is based, digital accessibility must be in your plans. Success means more growth and less risk. The alternative is fines and lawsuits, restrictions and penalties, exposure and brand damage.

To succeed, you must have a mature program. Compliance alone will fail at scale. There are simply too many interdependencies, from complex supply chains, self-service technologies, and mobile applications to PDF documentation, value chains, and more. Does your roadmap take all of this into consideration? The organizations that thrive will have accessibility built into every product, platform, process, and experience.

This can be a monumental endeavor. However, with a well-thought-out, published roadmap, your organization can achieve the program maturity needed for long-term success.

What you can do

There are several things you can be doing right now to optimize your roadmap and advance your program.

Analyze your roadmap

Roadmaps share common themes. They are aspirational, not inspirational. They incorporate sufficient lead time for success. And they cover aspects such as:

Resilience. Your roadmap should be resilient enough to embrace emerging technologies such as AI. This includes having tasks to validate AI, training AI with responsible models, and leveraging AI where possible, including for advanced automated testing.
Reporting. Your enterprise should be able to support all required regulatory reporting, including conformance reporting and nonconformance reporting. Many monitoring bodies do require you to submit a roadmap to conformity as part of your nonconformance reporting.
Testing. You need to ensure that you’re testing to the right standard for the countries that you’re serving. Unfortunately, we see many companies attempting to claim conformance to EAA when they are only testing to WCAG 2.1 AA.
Planning. You need to allocate ample time to ensure you can uplevel to EN 301 549 version 4.1.1 in the spring of 2026.
Assessment. You should have a working definition of what “good” looks like in practice across your ecosystem for all personas, including vendors, buyers, and regulators.
Management. Are you clearly defining roles and responsibilities using the RACI model to ensure everyone understands how they contribute?

Use proven methodologies from change management and motivation disciplines

Successful change management efforts use strategies like the following:

Better goals through positivity. People prefer positive goals over negative statements. Use language like “Publish content that everyone can access,” or “Create documents that work with assistive technologies,” instead of “Don’t publish inaccessible content.”
Specific yet flexible. People respond well to specificity, but they also appreciate flexibility. Rather than “Training must be complete by January 31,” use language like” Training should be aligned with individual schedules and completed within the first quarter.”
Success as motivation. You can use evidence of success to increase motivation. Instead of “We have 100 documents to fix,” lead with “10 of our most trafficked documents are accessible.”
Smaller is better. Focus on several smaller tasks instead of one big task. Instead of “We will fix all of our documents this year,” you can reframe the effort as, “We will aim to fix 10 documents from our inventory per month.”

Perhaps the most important thing about success is that you communicate it. Share the good news! Don’t just remove tick boxes or remove completed items from your list—report on them, show them in dashboards, and shout out your kudos wherever and however you can!

Engage the entire enterprise

It takes the entire enterprise working in concert to run a strong accessibility program. The effort must be frictionless, and every department must have a common approach and objective.

When programs struggle to mature—when they lose support, stall out, or backslide—it’s often because teams or departments are working in silos. For digital accessibility to be successful, everyone must work together. This goes well beyond the SDLC. Legal, procurement, regulatory reporting, risk and governance, learning and development, customer support, corporate communications—everyone must be aligned.

To achieve this alignment, you must socialize your roadmap before publication and recognize that this is a continuous activity. It’s how you ensure your roadmap is relatable to your colleagues and considers your entire organization’s inter- and intra-dependencies. Your roadmap should also be easy for anyone in your company to find. We recommend making it a key navigational item on your program’s portal or intranet. By making your roadmap easy to find, as well as its metrics for success, you provide one more avenue for the entire enterprise to be engaged.

Use common frameworks and methodologies

It is likely that your organization already uses SMART goals and the RACI model. Your accessibility program roadmap should also employ these models. It’s a way to avoid issues with measurability and competing definitions of success. It also establishes and fosters accountability, with teams having clearly defined roles and clear alignment with key objectives. To succeed within the business, you need to play the business game well!

Measure and report on everything you can, including program maturity

You are your own PR engine. Don’t be shy about broadcasting your achievements. Report every statistic you can, including overall program maturity. And remember, health measurements—completed using maturity models—can play a critical role in roadmap planning, success assessments, and storytelling.

Next steps

Deque has helped countless organizations increase their enterprise maturity model score using the approaches I’ve outlined above. It’s a proven framework, and if you have a roadmap in place, now is the perfect time to examine where and how you can optimize it for long-term success.

If you don’t yet have a roadmap in place, you can easily get the data you need to create one with our free digital accessibility action plan resource. It only takes a few minutes, and you’ll receive:

A personalized action plan based on your organization’s current state
Role-specific recommendations for designers, developers, and QA teams
Clear ideas and next steps you can implement immediately
Crucial advice across all phases of your SDLC

All you need to do is answer a quick series of questions about your accessibility practices, and we’ll generate a customized plan and deliver it straight to your inbox. Get your digital accessibility action plan today.

If you’re in Europe or doing business there, accessibility program maturity is already a mission-critical need for your organization. If you’re outside of Europe, now’s the time to get ahead, because heightened digital accessibility requirements are sure to be on the map for you as well.

Matthew Luken

Matthew Luken is a Senior Vice President and Chief Architect at Deque, consulting with companies of all sizes, markets, and industries to grow their digital accessibility programs. Matthew also provides thought leadership to advance the profession and practice of digital accessibility and mature and maximize operations, processes, and outcomes. Prior to Deque, Matthew built and ran U.S. Bank’s digital accessibility program, providing accessibility design reviews, compliance testing services, defect remediation consulting, and more. The program leveraged over 1,500 implementations of Deque’s Axe Auditor and nearly 4,000 implementations of Axe DevTools and Deque University. Matthew also served as Head of UXDesign’s Accessibility Center of Practice, where he was responsible for supporting the digital accessibility team’s mission. As a digital accessibility, user experience, and service design expert, Matthew has worked with over 500 brands, covering every vertical and market. He also actively mentors digital designers and accessibility professionals.

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Tags: accessibility program , accessibility strategy

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The Accessible Canada Act (ACA) set an ambitious goal: a barrier-free Canada by 2040.

For the Canadian federal government and federally regulated organizations, that goal is now governed by the Phase 1 Digital Technologies Regulations.

This creates a situation where deadlines intersect with a clearly defined national ICT accessibility standard. If you’re an executive, CAT leader, or legal stakeholder, this is either operational risk or operational advantage, depending on how prepared you are.

The ACA established the governance structure, and Canada’s adoption of CAN/ASC-EN 301 549 established the technical precision. Together, they create a measurable compliance environment. However, the timelines for the federal government and the federally regulated private sector are not identical.

As we examine key digital accessibility compliance deadlines in this post, I’ll make clear why that distinction matters.

What you need to know now

The ACA deadlines

Federally regulated organizations were required to publish their first accessibility plans between 2022 and 2023. With that phase completed, many federally regulated private-sector organizations then filed their second accessibility progress report on June 1, 2025. The next annual progress report for those organizations is due June 1, 2026.

Accessibility plans must be updated every three years. Organizations that published initial plans in 2022 will begin filing updates in 2025–2026, with others following in 2027. These updates must demonstrate measurable progress, not just continued commitment. That means clear evidence of barriers removed and systems improved, with accessibility embedded into operations.

Annual progress reports continue between plan updates. They are public documents describing actions taken, feedback received, and work still outstanding. If your next report is due within the year, your operational priorities should already reflect this.

The technical standard

While the Accessible Canada Act (ACA) created the overall reporting and accountability framework, it formally identifies CAN/ASC-EN 301 549 as the technical benchmark for measuring digital accessibility (as of December 2025).

CAN/ASC-EN 301 549 was published in May 2024 as a National Standard of Canada. It is a direct adoption of the European standard EN 301 549 (v3.2.1). EN 301 549 includes WCAG 2.1 Level AA, plus additional unique requirements. The EN standard goes far beyond just websites, including a wide range of ICT products and services such as websites, software, mobile apps, electronic documents, hardware interfaces, and communications technologies. In short, federal digital accessibility expectations are grounded in a broad and comprehensive technical standard.

While CAN/ASC-EN 301 549 v3.2.1 currently includes WCAG 2.1 AA, an update (EN 301 549 v4.1.1) to include WCAG 2.2 AA is on the horizon. Because the differences between WCAG 2.1 AA and WCAG 2.2 are minimal—only six new success criteria—Deque recommends targeting EN 301 549 + WCAG 2.2 AA now. Doing so helps you avoid redundant remediation work when the formal update lands in 2026.

If your accessibility strategy is still focused only on websites, it’s time to widen your lens. And if your roadmap doesn’t account for alignment with EN 301 549 and WCAG 2.2, that gap could become visible during procurement reviews, audits, or public reporting.

A multi-year convergence of reporting and enforcement

As we look ahead, we can see where the pressure begins to build. Federal government and federally regulated organizations are navigating a multi-year convergence of governance reporting and technical enforcement. Let’s examine the details.

Phase 1 enforcement: The 2027 deadline. As reporting cycles continue, the new Digital Technologies Accessibility Regulations (Phase 1) introduce enforceable technical obligations. By December 5, 2027:

Accessibility training. All obligated entities (federal government and federally regulated private sector) must complete mandatory accessibility training for all staff involved in digital technologies.
Accessible websites and web apps
- Federal government only: Must ensure websites and web applications fully conform to the ICT Standard (EN 301 549) and publish their accessibility statement.

Phase 1 enforcement: The 2028 deadline. By December 5, 2028:

Websites: Public-facing websites and web apps must conform to the standard
- Applies to federally regulated orgs with 500+ employees (large), and 100-499 employees (small).
Digital documents: Digital documents (like PDFs) must conform to the standard
- For this phase, this requirement does apply to the federal government and large federally regulated orgs, but does not yet apply to medium orgs (100-499 employees).
Mobile apps: New public-facing apps launched on or after this date must be accessible.
- For this phase, this requirement does apply to the federal government and large federally regulated orgs, but does not yet apply to medium orgs (100-499 employees).
Legacy apps (existing before this date) must undergo a conformity assessment
- For this phase, this requirement does apply to the federal government and large federally regulated orgs, but does not yet apply to medium orgs (100-499 employees).
Procurement and statements: You must begin demanding “clean” Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs) in procurement and publish your detailed accessibility statement
- For this phase, this requirement does apply to the federal government and large federally regulated orgs, but does not yet apply to medium orgs (100-499 employees).

As we closely compare how obligations and requirements differ by organization size, one question that emerges is whether there will be a Phase 2 requiring medium-sized organizations to meet the same requirements that large organizations are required to meet in Phase 1.

At Deque, we believe this will hit medium-sized organizations in a future Phase 2, despite no deadline having been set yet. However, because medium-sized businesses are already subject to the 2027 training deadline and may cross the 500-employee threshold in the interim, our strategic advice is to treat the ICT Standard (EN 301 549) as inevitable—even if there is no hard legal deadline yet.

Governance plus technical alignment drives success

Publishing plans and annual progress reports satisfies the structure of the ACA. It demonstrates that governance mechanisms are in place. But governance alone does not prove accessibility is operational.

Without alignment to CAN/ASC-EN 301 549, those plans and reports are difficult to defend. With a well-defined ICT accessibility standard, evaluation shifts from general commitment to measurable conformance.

This is where many organizations underestimate the lift. Accessibility cannot sit in a policy document or a compliance binder. It must be reflected in how technology is selected, designed, built, tested, and maintained.

That means embedding accessibility into procurement requirements and vendor contracts. It means aligning development workflows and design systems to the national ICT standard. It means validating against defined criteria, not informal checklists. And it means building internal competency through training and clear accountability.

If accessibility is not integrated into operational processes, reporting cycles will expose that gap. So remember, strong governance makes accessibility visible, while technical alignment makes it defensible.

The importance of being proactive

Remediating enterprise platforms, document repositories, and software systems is not a short-cycle effort. Embedding accessibility into procurement, vendor contracts, and SDLC practices requires executive sponsorship and budget alignment.

Organizations that begin now can spread this work across fiscal cycles. Those that wait until 2027 or 2028 will face compressed timelines, much higher remediation costs, and the risk of public reporting gaps.

Ultimately, this is about how seriously your organization takes digital accessibility, and how quickly it responds to enterprise-level changes.

You can approach these new reporting and enforcement cycles reactively, scrambling to demonstrate improvement, or strategically, aligning now to CAN/ASC-EN 301 549 and building a sustainable roadmap.

Strategic organizations plan ahead and avoid expensive, crisis-driven execution.

Next steps

The Accessible Canada Act created recurring accountability. The adoption of CAN/ASC-EN 301 549 created technical clarity. The Digital Technologies Accessibility Regulations introduce enforceable digital obligations beginning in 2027 and 2028. Together, they raise the maturity expectation for digital accessibility across federally regulated sectors.

If your roadmap is not yet aligned to Canada’s national ICT accessibility standard, and your next reporting or regulatory milestone falls within the next 6–24 months, now is the time to act.

You can schedule a strategic consultation today to pressure-test your timeline-to-compliance and ensure your next reporting cycle reflects measurable, defensible progress.

Glenda Sims

Glenda Sims is the Chief Information Accessibility Officer at Deque, where she shares her expertise and passion for the open web with government organizations, educational institutions, and companies ranging in size from small businesses to large enterprise organizations. Glenda is an advisor and co-founder of AIR-University (Accessibility Internet Rally) and AccessU. She serves as an accessibility consultant, judge, and trainer for Knowbility, an organization whose mission is to support the independence of people with disabilities by promoting the availability of barrier-free IT. In 2010 Glenda co-authored the book InterACT with Web Standards: A holistic approach to Web Design.

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Tags: ACA , Accessible Canada Act , EN 301 549 , Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

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Will AI be our savior or our downfall? It’s a question everyone seems to be asking, and opinions differ wildly.

At one extreme, you’ve got claims that AI will perform every task that needs doing, creating wealth, replacing work, nurturing a new leisure class, solving all our pesky global problems, and essentially saving the human race. At the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got a very different AI reality: one where models regularly hallucinate, fail at seemingly basic tasks, and provide dangerously erroneous information.

At Deque, my colleagues and I are taking a responsible, human-centric approach to AI, and we’re excited about its power to drive accessibility innovation. In a recent post introducing some new features, my colleague Harris Schneiderman explained AI’s importance to digital accessibility:

“To solve AI-created accessibility challenges, you need AI-powered accessibility solutions, and that’s exactly what Deque is providing.”

The reality is that AI adoption is accelerating so rapidly that companies can’t build data centers fast enough to keep up. What used to take ten developers an entire day can now be done by one developer in an hour.

However, when things like privacy, security, and accessibility aren’t integrated into workflows, products and services are far more likely to ship with serious issues. Which means legal risk goes up. Way up.

Digital accessibility has long existed in an environment of complaints, demand letters, litigation, and settlements. Some of this activity is strategic—lawsuits designed to encourage businesses to get and stay accessible. Other actions are predatory: “drive-by” lawsuits designed to force quick cash settlements.

Now, with the rise of AI, there’s a new game in town, as people are using AI to file pro se lawsuits (lawsuits in which someone represents themselves).

AI-powered pro se accessibility lawsuits

There are many reasons someone might file a pro se lawsuit. Sometimes people believe they’re best equipped to present their own case. More often, however, it’s to save money on legal fees. Litigation is complicated, time-consuming, and out of reach for many people.

At least, it used to be.

ChatGPT and similar tools are changing that. According to Seyfarth, federal pro se ADA Title III lawsuits are up 40% in 2025 compared to 2024, with federal pro se FHA lawsuits up 69% during the same period. What accounts for the increase? As Seyfarth notes, “Most pro se litigants we encounter are using AI tools to help them litigate.”

AI is reshaping digital accessibility from every direction at once, creating new complications in the process. AI-powered coding tools help developers build faster, but much of that new content fails basic accessibility standards. AI is becoming essential for identifying and fixing accessibility barriers at scale, but not all AI tools are equally reliable or grounded in accessibility expertise. And now, AI is making it easier to file accessibility lawsuits, even though legal pressure alone doesn’t guarantee accessible experiences.

So what role should AI play in digital accessibility? What should businesses be doing to get ahead of legal risk? How do you reduce legal exposure while creating better products for the 1.3 billion people worldwide who have disabilities?

Why proactive accessibility is the right approach

The merits of any given lawsuit depend largely on intention. One lawsuit might get filed because a company continues to neglect its accessibility issues and it feels like the only way to instigate positive change, while another might be a predatory attempt to force a quick financial settlement. The reality on the receiving end is the same either way—a lawsuit to contend with.

The use of AI in pro se litigation introduces yet another challenge. A legal novice using AI is likely to be unfamiliar with litigation and courtroom proceedings. A situation like this could increase duration and cost as much as 50% as the individual attempts to navigate and negotiate in a complex federal court situation.

The key to navigating any of these situations is remembering that the ultimate goal is digital accessibility. Even the best-intentioned lawsuits are only a means to that end. The best approach is one where lawsuits aren’t necessary in the first place. Instead of reacting to demand letters and lawsuits, you can prevent them entirely by building accessibility into your products from the start and maintaining compliance over the long term. And the good news is that AI can drive this kind of proactive digital accessibility.

When we talk about proactive accessibility, we mean building accessibly from the start—combining AI-powered testing with human expertise to give developers speed that doesn’t create technical debt, to give businesses compliance that enables rather than hinders innovation, and to ensure people with disabilities have equal access to digital products, services, and experiences.

The key to this approach is staying focused on outcomes rather than mechanisms. This shifts the question from “are these lawsuits bad?” to “what actually creates accessible digital experiences?” Lawsuits—pro se or otherwise—are a symptom and response to a problem, not the problem itself.

How to achieve proactive digital accessibility

Proactive accessibility requires investment and culture change. It’s a practice shift that organizations must commit to. But when you contrast different approaches, the effort is clearly worth it.

From break-fix cycles to shift-left practices

Shifting left means moving accessibility testing to earlier in your development process. The immediate goal is to find and fix accessibility issues sooner, so you can save time, money, and effort on costly remediation downstream.

Too often, teams get stuck in a break-fix cycle, building and releasing new products while simultaneously fixing products that come back with accessibility issues. From an organizational standpoint, it’s inefficient and expensive. For developers, it’s frustrating and disheartening.

By shifting left, you increase efficiency, reduce issues, and free up your teams to focus on innovation and building more and better products.

From short-term settlements to long-term solutions

I’ve written previously about the real costs of accessibility litigation, examining whether it makes financial sense to opt for a quick settlement—especially when the lawsuit feels predatory (meaning it’s about extracting a financial settlement rather than encouraging the company to become accessible).

A well-known example cited in a recent Wall Street Journal article involved a seemingly small settlement of $4,950. But the legal fees? Nearly $40,000. That puts the real cost at approximately $45,000—more than twice what it would have cost to address the accessibility issues once and for all, an effort estimated at only $13,000.

While a short-term settlement might initially seem like the easy way out, it’s actually a recipe for trouble. Not only will you pay more than you think the first time, but you’re likely to be paying again soon when new accessibility issues arise. And they will arise, if you’re not taking proactive steps to prevent them.

From reactive tactics to proactive strategies

The most effective way to reduce costs and limit legal risk is to implement a comprehensive digital accessibility program where you’re not only finding and fixing issues sooner, but you’re preventing them from happening in the first place.

Shifting left is part of this, but there’s more to it than that. You need to integrate the right tools, implement role-based training, enable cross-functional collaboration and knowledge-sharing, and strike the right balance between automated and manual testing to ensure you’re making the most of your teams’ skill sets. Change management of this kind isn’t always easy, but the benefits far outweigh the challenges. Your costs go down, your reputation goes up, and your products get better and more inclusive—the most important goal of all.

Next steps

At this point, it’s already become a cliché: AI is not going away. To which I say, good, because there are very powerful and positive things that can be achieved with this technology. However, as I’ve hopefully made clear, there are real risks as well.

AI is all about speed and scale. In digital accessibility litigation, we’re seeing the same disruptive acceleration that’s happening everywhere else. What companies need to understand—as the Seyfarth numbers make clear—is that AI-powered lawsuits will increase in frequency and are likely to be predatory. Trying to defend against them is going to be costly, and opting to settle even more so.

The only viable way forward is to get and stay accessible now, before you’re exposed to litigation. As Harris’s quote makes clear, solving AI-driven challenges requires AI-driven solutions. Or, as I put it in another recent article, “the best defense is a good offense.”

Reach out to our strategic experts at Deque today. We can help you implement a proactive approach to digital accessibility that maximizes benefits while limiting risk.

Greg Williams

Greg Williams is the Senior Vice President & Chief Architect at Deque Systems, Inc. He oversees program development and operations for some of Deque’s largest customers, helping them to build mature, sustainable accessibility programs.

Prior to joining Deque, Greg spent more than 30 years in the information technology field focusing on large, complex program operations for Fortune 40 companies and before that served in the United States Navy for a number of years. He had great success as the founder and owner of the Digital Accessibility Program Office for State Farm Insurance, building their practice from the ground up into one of the highest maturity level programs in the world between 2013 and 2018.

Greg has always been passionate about diversity and inclusion and has extended this passion to the disability and accessibility community - joining Deque Systems in 2018 to help launch and mature similarly successful programs across the globe.

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Tags: ADA Compliance , lawsuit , Web Accessibility

Images need alternative text (alt text). This is often one of the first things designers and developers learn about accessibility. On the surface, it’s a simple concept to learn and is usually straightforward to implement. Automatically detecting whether an image has alt text or not is also pretty easy. Browser-based tools like Axe DevTools can find the alt text for most types of images.

What’s not as easy to determine is when to use alt text and how to write good alt text that will be effective. In order to write appropriate alt text, you need to understand who you’re writing the alt text for and the purpose of the image.

Who uses alt text, anyway?

Alt text, is primarily used by people who use screen readers to access websites, apps, and other software. People who use screen readers are usually either completely blind or are considered low vision that makes it difficult to read the text on a page. People with low vision may not be able to see an image well enough to understand what it is, and people who are fully blind won’t be able to see the image at all. If an image is conveying important information that isn’t available elsewhere on the page, a person who can’t see the image will not get that information if the image doesn’t have alt text specified by the HTML alt attribute.

People who have very slow internet connections also have a use case for alt text. They can turn off images so that pages load faster, without losing the information that the important images convey. When you turn off images in the settings in most major browsers, the alt text for the image will display instead.

The WebAIM homepage, with a logo image, large background image, and a number of icons.

The WebAIM homepage again, but this time without images – Note that only the important images have alt text.

People who have cognitive disabilities may also turn off images on a page in order to reduce the number of distractions. If a person has trouble processing large amounts of information or is easily distracted, turning off images can help.

Alternatively, a person may have a learning disability which prevents them from understanding text easily. In this case, it’s good to include images and other media to help them process the information on the page more easily.

In addition to improving accessibility, alt text is also used by search engines to determine the subject of an image and is considered as a ranking factor for SEO (search image optimization).

When do images need alt text?

Always! Every image should include alt text to ensure a positive experience for users who rely on screen readers. Even if an image is decorative and does not require descriptive alt text (more on this below), it’s still important to use an alt=”” tag. This prevents the screen reader from reading the image file name aloud (bad experience) to the user, which is a poor experience. In short, all images need some sort of alt text—even if it’s just an empty tag (“”).

Having answered with an “always!” above, I do want to clarify my comment about “decorative” images. In the accessibility world, we differentiate between images that are decorative and images that are informative.

Decorative images usually don’t need alt text (beyond the empty tag that I mentioned above). They may exist on the page for purely aesthetic reasons (in other words, to make the page look pretty). Or they may be repeating information that is already on the page as text. In that case, adding alt text to the image would be redundant.

Informative images, on the other hand, convey some kind of information. The rule I use to determine whether an image is informative or not is to imagine if it was removed from the design. If I would be missing information because the image was gone, then it means the image is informative and needs alt text.

This webpage has two images: A large, colorful background image and a logo image. What happens if they’re removed?

Here both images have been removed from the page. I can still understand everything without the large banner image, but with the logo missing, I’m not sure which site I’m on.

The technique of removing the image can also help you understand the context for the image. In the case of the background image, its context is the text and buttons on top of it. The text and the buttons underneath explain everything you need to know about this banner. Providing an alt text description for the banner image wouldn’t add anything to the meaning.

It’s fairly common to see images in conjunction with text, particularly on news sites, social media, and e-commerce sites. Often, images are accompanied by a headline or other text that describes the image.

“Star Wars Darth Vader Teapot Set” and the price ($59.99) show in text underneath the image of a teapot, cup, and saucer that are all Darth Vader-themed.

In the case of this Darth Vader teapot set (from ThinkGeek RIP), the text underneath the image describes the image and is also rendered using HTML, which means screen readers will be able to find it. You could argue that the image should include alt text that is more descriptive than the text beneath it. For example, the alt text could describe the teapot in the photo as Darth Vader’s iconic helmet, and the teacup as having Darth Vader’s lighted chest panel on it. However, users won’t know all of the details about the tea set until they go to the product page for it, so you could also argue that the image doesn’t need any alt text because it’s purpose—as with the text beneath it—is to tempt the user to click the link for more information.

The moral of the story is that determining whether an image is decorative or not is often dependent on context.

Types of images that definitely need alt text

There are some types of images that are always informative, and therefore always need alt text. These include:

Images that are links or buttons
Images which contain important text
Logos

Even for these, it’s important to look at the image’s context – if there’s HTML-rendered text adjacent to the image that gives you the same information, then providing alt text can be redundant.

Images that are links or buttons

It’s fairly common to find images, especially on marketing or e-commerce sites, which are also links. For example, on a typical product listing on Amazon, most of the images on the page are pictures of products, which link to more detail about the product when you click on them. Sometimes these images are accompanied by text, but sometimes they are not, as in the following example:

Amazon’s “Interesting Finds” page contains a grid of images with no text that all link to products. Fortunately, all of these images have decent alt text!

There are three keys to writing alt text for images (or buttons) that are also links:

Clickable images should have alt text or be part of a clickable area that also includes HTML text that describes the image.
Alt text or text associated with the image should make clear what will happen when you follow the link or activate the button.
Images with no text around the image, it must have alt text!

Screen readers will always read out links and buttons. If a link is an image and has no alt text, all that a screen reader user will hear is the word “link.” Following links and clicking, buttons are two of the main ways people interact with websites. If a user can’t tell what the link or button is for, they likely won’t be able to use that part of the page.

Images of text

In general, it’s a good idea to use HTML to render text as much as possible, rather than embedding text in an image. HTML text doesn’t require any extra work on the part of the developer to make it accessible. However, when geared towards marketing, text is sometimes used in a way that can’t be replicated easily using HTML and CSS.

Take this old screenshot from Victoria’s Secret:

This banner ad for a pajama sale uses two styles of text. One is a simple sans serif font in black, which would be easy to replicate using HTML and CSS. The other is a sans serif font which looks like it’s written using glitter. It would be very difficult to replicate the glitter using CSS.

The entire ad is a single image, however, and includes other images of pajamas sets, pairs of slippers, and a woman opening a gift. If designers and developers wanted to convert the basic black text to HTML while preserving the layout, they would have to use HTML and CSS to create a responsive layout which would accommodate multiple images and pieces of text. The solution that the Victoria’s Secret site used was to replicate all of the text in the image as alt text.

Given that these ads are often only up for a week or less, turnaround time is important. Some companies choose to just use alt text on the full image rather than meet the requirement to not use images of text. Technically, this is a failure of WCAG because while the alt text is helpful to screen reader users, low vision users do not have the ability to adjust font type, font color and background color.

Logos

It’s very rare that a product or company logo will be used in a way that doesn’t require alt text. Even when the logo has text in it, that text is usually part of the image and can’t be removed from it.

For example, the UserTesting logo is made up almost entirely of text. While the text could be replicated in HTML to remove the need for alt text, there’s no good or easy way of doing that without compromising the design of the logo. It is much simpler to add alt text to the image.

alt: UserTesting logo

Logos are also often used in the header or banner of a site and are often links which lead to the site’s homepage. These days, many users expect this functionality. At a minimum, the alt text for a company’s logo in the header should be the name of the company. For a slightly better experience, adding additional alt text which says where the link goes can be helpful. For the UserTesting logo, the alt text could read “User Testing – Home”.

Icons are images, too

There are many types of images that can be informative or not. It’s your job to determine whether an image is informative before you decide whether to write alt text. One type of image that often comes up in the design phase are icons. They deserve their own section here because, in my experience, designers often forget that icons and symbols are also images.

Icons follow the same principles as other types of images: they’re either informative or they aren’t. Here are a few questions to ask yourself about the icons you’re using:

Is there text directly next to the icon?
If there is text, does it describe exactly what the icon is for?
If the icon is a link or a button, where does it go?

It’s increasingly common to see icons which stand on their own, with no text around them at all. In that case, it’s very important to add alt text to the icons. Otherwise, they will be meaningless to anyone who can’t see them. It’s very rare for icons to be entirely decorative.

The Awwwards site uses multiple icons with no labels in the header. Unfortunately, none of them have alt text.

Icons without text are not ideal. It’s preferable and less ambiguous to use a text label—rendered using HTML—right next to the icon:

Icons can be used for multiple purposes (think of the gear icon).
Including text with icons that are links or buttons means a bigger clickable/touchable area for the link or button.
If alt text is added to the icon because there is no text around it, screen reader users will likely have a better experience than everyone else.

If you’re using icons, try to find a place for a text label next to the icon. If that isn’t possible, make sure the icon is very clear and understandable, big enough to see (and click) easily, and has alt text.

When should alt text be written, and who should write it?

If you created the image, you should write the alt text. If you didn’t create the image but you are the first to include it in a wireframe or mockup or prototype, you should write the alt text. If you’re a developer and you’re implementing UI with images based on something created by a content creator or a designer, you should not be responsible for writing the alt text – alt text should have been written by the time it gets to you. The developer’s responsibility is to make sure the alt text is implemented correctly.

When designers write alt text for images (especially icons and logos) as they’re finalizing a set of wireframes or mockups for a feature or a page, they can include alt text as part of the wireframe annotations. If someone is writing a blog post, they can write alt text or a caption (or sometimes both) for each included image as they’re creating the draft.

Alt text that’s written long after the fact (for example, during an “accessibility sprint,” or worse, after the site has launched), is usually less effective. The reasoning and context for including an image may have been lost in the process. As with all aspects of accessibility, it’s both faster and easier to write alt text up front, rather than to do it after the fact.

Finding the right balance for image descriptions

While symbols, icons, and logos are straightforward to describe because of their simplicity, pictures with more detail require careful consideration to avoid overwhelming the reader. Focus on the key elements of the image, such as how many people are present, the location, and what activities are taking place. Thoughtful descriptions help people with disabilities better understand images they otherwise wouldn’t be able to see.

If you’re describing a house in alt text, simply writing “Photo of a house” is likely not enough. Instead, a more informative description like “Modern one-story home on quiet residential street with brown dog sitting in front” provides helpful context. However, going into excessive detail, such as “Contemporary large white one-story home with large expanses of glass, gray stone accents, manicured landscaping with four mature trees, and a medium-sized brown and white dog sitting on the front porch looking happy,” may be overwhelming and unnecessary.

In conclusion: writing alt text makes you a better designer (and creates better experiences for your users!)

One of the most valuable aspects of thinking about alt text is that it forces you to consider the meaning and purpose of any given image. And the practice of writing alt text can help you improve your designs and your content.

In writing alt text for an icon, you might discover that the icon itself is too vague. This can then lead you to edit your designs to make the icon more understandable. If you’re writing a blog post and struggling to write a caption for an image you want to include, you might end up removing the image after all, because you realize that it didn’t illustrate your point as well as you thought it did.

By thinking more about the images you’re including in your design or content work—and the impact they have on all types of people—you’re able to make your work that much stronger. Images can be a very powerful form of information. The more thought you put into them, the more powerful they can become.

Patrick Sturdivant

Patrick Sturdivant is Vice President and Principal Strategy Consultant at Deque Systems. Patrick has worked in information technology for over 30 years. An experienced software engineer who is blind, Patrick deeply understands the technical challenges our customers and the disabled community face when it comes to accessibility. Coupled with his testing, team building, training and DE&I strengths, Patrick is a consulting force to be reckoned with. For the last eleven years, Patrick has been dedicated to promoting digital inclusion for all through awareness and the benefits digital equality brings to all users by sharing his own personal story of leading a digital lifestyle using multiple screen readers on both desktop and tablet platforms. Patrick’s accomplishments include accessibility lab and disability employee resource group establishment experience, US Patent holder for several bank products designed for the blind and his ability to influence at all levels of an organization’s business and technical teams.

All Posts by Patrick Sturdivant

Tags: accessible UX , alt text , UX

We’re at an inflection point for digital accessibility. With AI accelerating content creation and code generation, and global regulations and standards rapidly evolving, the pace at which teams must deliver quality, compliant, accessible experiences is intensifying—and so is the pressure.

Rising to this moment means having the right tools so organizations can scale digital accessibility, keep pace with modern requirements, and continue moving toward a more accessible digital world. To solve AI-created accessibility challenges, you need AI-powered accessibility solutions, and that’s exactly what Deque is providing.

Our two latest AI features are automated Intelligent Guided Tests and advanced rules. While we’ve had many enterprise customers already using these for months, you can now access these features directly in your browser extension, so it’s even easier for you to leverage in your workflows.

Drive more impact from your accessibility testing with AI-driven features

With our AI-enhanced capabilities, you’ll benefit from expanded automated coverage to help your teams find and fix more accessibility issues faster. You’ll also be able to expand who can participate in testing, making it easier for more people to uncover issues that previously required expert-only review. This means quicker issue detection, lower manual effort, and more bandwidth for strategic accessibility work.

Automated Intelligent Guided Tests

Automated Intelligent Guided Tests use AI to help your teams complete more complex accessibility tests faster and more consistently—without taking control away from human experts. Instead of manually working through guided questions and steps, AI assists by reviewing patterns, surfacing potential issues, and presenting clear findings for your team to review and approve with just the click of a button. You get the speed and consistency of automation while retaining full ownership of the final results.

Automated Intelligent Guided Tests also provide reasoning behind each finding, so your team can understand why an issue was flagged. This builds trust, confidence, and shared understanding across teams.

The first automated Intelligent Guided Test available is for interactive elements. We are actively automating more Intelligent Guided Tests (such as keyboard tests) so we can continue to help break down barriers to accessibility, make it easier to test earlier in the SDLC and scale across teams.

Advanced automated rules

These AI-powered rules tackle issues like heading structure, focus indicators, text contrast, and decorative images—areas that previously required manual testing or Intelligent Guided Tests. Now, your developers and QA teams can catch these problems early, consistently, and quickly. This means more people on your teams have the power to contribute to accessibility right away and move faster through workflows. You’ll also be freeing up your experts to focus on the most complex and strategic problems.

The impact: Faster, easier, more scalable accessibility testing

Teams once spent 30–45 minutes manually tabbing through every interactive element, discovering keyboard issues, documenting issues, and writing up remediation recommendations. With Intelligent Guided Tests, we were able to tremendously cut down that time to 2–3 minutes. Now, with automated IGTs powered by AI, those same tests happen in seconds—up to 4x faster than a standard IGT (and up to 60x faster than a manual test).

As you can see, these new AI features truly give you meaningful advantages in your accessibility strategy. Your team can automatically detect more accessibility issues with less manual work, while you stay in control of final decisions. Routine tasks are handled faster, freeing you up to focus on critical, high-impact accessibility challenges. And because more people (not just specialists) can contribute confidently, you build a more scalable, resilient accessibility program. It’s the ideal way to stay ahead in our AI-powered world.

If you’d like to check out these new features and learn more, contact our team to get a demo or start a free trial of the Axe DevTools Extension.

Request a demo today!

Harris Schneiderman

All Posts by Harris Schneiderman

Tags: AI , automated accessibility testing , Intelligent Guided Tests