WebAIM Blog
type: channel
description: The WebAIM Web Accessibility Blog
date: 2026-04-30T19:23:58Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
generator agent: https://wordpress.org/
items: Tolerating Inaccessibility
items: Ask AIMee: An accessible accessibility-focused AI chatbot
items: A New Path for Digital Accessibility?
items: 2026 Predictions: The Next Big Shifts in Web Accessibility
items: Word and PowerPoint Alt Text Roundup
items: Accessibility by Design: Preparing K–12 Schools for What’s Next
items: Up and Coming ARIA
items: Global Digital Accessibility Salary Survey Results
items: Join the Discussion—From Your Inbox
items: Using Severity Ratings to Prioritize Web Accessibility Remediation

Tolerating Inaccessibility
type: item
creator: Christopher Phillips
date: 2026-04-30T17:50:24Z
subject: Uncategorized
description: The latest WebAIM Million report shows that detectable homepage accessibility errors increased over the past year. This article considers what those results may reveal about the organizational and societal forces that continue to deprioritize accessibility, and challenges us to imagine a world where inaccessibility is no longer tolerated.
encoded: The recent 2026 WebAIM Million report showed that across the top 1,000,000 websites, the number of distinct accessibility errors detected by WAVE rose from 51 in the 2025 report to 56.1. Despite an increase in interest and the tireless efforts of digital accessibility professionals all over the world, the data indicate that the web is less accessible than it was a year ago. It is disheartening to acknowledge such a significant setback from hard-won progress, but I’m hopeful this can also be an opportunity to consider what we might do differently going forward. The hardest thing for me about the latest report is the reminder that we live in a world where it remains broadly acceptable (or at least tolerable) that the top one million home pages average 56.1 potential barriers for a specific group of people. Why is widespread inaccessibility still acceptable for disabled users? I have felt unsettled recently by the adage, “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” The lack of digital accessibility is the result of a system that was clearly not designed to prioritize accessibility. That said, how do we impact systemic change, and what “system” are we even talking about? There is important work already underway to incorporate accessibility more into processes related to training, purchasing practices, hiring processes, technical standards, and policy. This work is essential, but why is accessibility missing from so many of those systems in the first place? Digital inaccessibility is often framed as an awareness, technical, training, or legal problem—and it is all of those things. But that is only part of the story; accessibility barriers persist not only because of these challenges, but also because their impact on disabled users remains easy for so many organizations to overlook. There is ample evidence of people with disabilities being treated differently than people without disabilities in employment, education, housing, and healthcare. Findings f…

Ask AIMee: An accessible accessibility-focused AI chatbot
type: item
creator: Jared Smith
date: 2026-03-31T16:49:07Z
subject: Uncategorized
description: We’re happy to introduce AIMee – an easy-to-use, AI-powered conversational chatbot focused on accessibility. AIMee has been designed to be highly accessible to users with disabilities. Ask her accessibility questions to get quick answers and guidance. The name “AIMee” plays off of the “AIM” (Accessibility In Mind) from “WebAIM” and also “AI”. Here are some […]
encoded: We’re happy to introduce AIMee – an easy-to-use, AI-powered conversational chatbot focused on accessibility. AIMee has been designed to be highly accessible to users with disabilities. Ask her accessibility questions to get quick answers and guidance. The name “AIMee” plays off of the “AIM” (Accessibility In Mind) from “WebAIM” and also “AI”. Here are some examples of the types of things you can ask AIMee: Paste in code that has accessibility issues and ask AIMee to provide recommendations for code fixes. Provide a description of your organization and ask AIMee to generate a draft accessibility policy. Ask AIMee to explain or summarize an accessibility concept or a WCAG success criterion. Ask AIMee to provide a list of resources on a particular accessibility topic. Provide an accessibility technique and ask AIMee to generate a checklist for testing or implementing it. Ask AIMee to test your knowledge by generating a list of questions about WCAG or some other accessibility concept. Ask AIMee to generate an easier, more understandable version of text you provide. We recognize that chatbots, and even accessibility-focused chatbots, are not entirely unique. And we recognize that AI can often provide guidance that is not accurate or supportive of individuals with disabilities. AIMee primarily uses the Qwen 3 Coder LLM (Large Language Model) with additional guardrails and structures in place to support more accurate and technically sound answers in comparison to many other models. As with all AI, hallucinations and incorrect answers can occur. AIMee’s answers should be verified and used at your own risk. We invite you to ask AIMee the next time you have an accessibility question. If there is sufficient interest, we may add additional features, such as file uploading/downloading, save functionality for chat histories, etc. If you have feedback for us, please comment below.

A New Path for Digital Accessibility?
type: item
creator: George Joeckel
date: 2026-02-27T19:02:14Z
subject: Uncategorized
description: Please note This post will explore how an adaptive, intelligent system could empower users with disabilities to optimize their experience in digital environments. Even were such a system available tomorrow, developers of digital content, services, and products would still be responsible for providing equal access to ALL users. Consider a few of the many exciting […]
encoded: Please note This post will explore how an adaptive, intelligent system could empower users with disabilities to optimize their experience in digital environments. Even were such a system available tomorrow, developers of digital content, services, and products would still be responsible for providing equal access to ALL users. Consider a few of the many exciting advances in assistive technology and digital accessibility over the past few years: Auracast: a technology that enables one device to transmit sound (e.g., language translation) wirelessly to multiple users with a compatible device, faster than traditional Bluetooth, without requiring pairing, PlayStation Access Controller: a highly customizable controller kit designed for gamers with limited motor control, The European Accessibility Act (EAA): digital accessibility legislation that applies to both the hardware and software of digital products and services. There has also been an enormous increase in the availability, capability, and use of artificial intelligence (AI). AI methodologies such as natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning are actively transforming both assistive technologies and digital accessibility practices. As Giansanti and Pirrera (2025) observe: “AI itself is expanding the concept of assistive technology, shifting from traditional tools to intelligent systems capable of learning and adapting to individual needs. This evolution represents a fundamental change in assistive technology, emphasizing dynamic, adaptive systems over static solutions.” I’d like to propose a term for the space where assistive technology, digital accessibility, and artificial intelligence converge: Intelligent Digital Accessibility Assistance. <img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="1024" height="1024" src="https://webaim.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/intelligent-digital-accessibility-assitance-1024x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-2844" style="width:371px;height:auto" srcset…

2026 Predictions: The Next Big Shifts in Web Accessibility
type: item
creator: John Northup
date: 2025-12-22T23:22:37Z
subject: Uncategorized
description: I’ve lived long enough, and worked in accessibility long enough, to have honed a healthy skepticism when I hear about the Next Big Thing. I’ve seen lush website launches that look great, until I activate a screen reader. Yet, in spite of it all, accessibility does evolve, but quietly rather than dramatically. As I gaze […]
encoded: I’ve lived long enough, and worked in accessibility long enough, to have honed a healthy skepticism when I hear about the Next Big Thing. I’ve seen lush website launches that look great, until I activate a screen reader. Yet, in spite of it all, accessibility does evolve, but quietly rather than dramatically. As I gaze ahead to 2026, several trends are already taking shape. These are more than theories and ideas; they are practical shifts that website owners are beginning to feel today. Here are some likely, meaningful changes on the near horizon. 1. AI Will Improve Accessibility Tools—But Not Replace Expertise I have to admit, over the past year, ChatGPT has become my confidante, advisor, reality checker, summarizer, and occasional Spanish interpreter. It’s like having a faithful human assistant who never grows weary of my repeated inquiries. But like a human assistant, it sometimes takes a few tries to get it right. That’s why I see AI more as a valuable helper than a project manager. It’s changing how accessibility testing tools work and getting better at identifying patterns, grouping related issues, and prioritizing findings. This trend will continue. What will not happen is full automation of accessibility evaluation. I do not trust it with determining whether alternative text is meaningful, evaluating interaction flow and user expectations, or understanding context and intent. In other words, AI can help raise some flags quickly, but I do not trust it to decide whether an experience actually works for a human being. So, the real shift for 2026 will be AI’s contribution to workflow efficiency, not replacement. Organizations that pair smarter tools with knowledgeable human reviewers will gain speed and consistency. Those that expect AI to do it for them will continue to miss critical barriers—just faster than before. 2. WCAG 2.2 Will Increasingly Become the Procurement Baseline WCAG 2.2 may no longer feel new to the industry, but many organizations are only beg…

Word and PowerPoint Alt Text Roundup
type: item
creator: Jon Whiting
date: 2025-10-31T19:14:54Z
subject: Uncategorized
description: Introduction In Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, there are many types of non-text content that can be given alternative text. We tested the alternative text of everything that we could think of in Word and PowerPoint and then converted these files to PDFs using Adobe’s Acrobat PDFMaker (the Acrobat Tab on Windows), Adobe’s Create PDF cloud […]
encoded: Introduction In Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, there are many types of non-text content that can be given alternative text. We tested the alternative text of everything that we could think of in Word and PowerPoint and then converted these files to PDFs using Adobe’s Acrobat PDFMaker (the Acrobat Tab on Windows), Adobe’s Create PDF cloud service (the Acrobat tab on Mac), and Microsoft’s built-in PDF exporting feature (save as PDF). With over 100 test cases tested first in Word and PowerPoint and then in three different PDFs (over 400 checks), here are the main takeaways. Alt text within Word documents and PowerPoint presentations works very well. The process for adding alt text is consistent across every image type, and it is usually easy for screen readers to discover the alt text. Images in Word no longer require a layout of “In Line with Text” to avoid accessibility issues. Alt text in Microsoft’s PDF exporting feature is very good. If there is one criticism, it is that the specific image type can be added to the alternative text, making it repetitive (e.g., “Pie chart of sales by quarter (Chart: Pie)”). Alt text support in Adobe’s PDF tools is very disappointing. PDFs created with the Acrobat tab have problems with basically every type of image except Pictures. Details are below, including gotchas for almost every type of image. Notes These tests were done in the desktop versions of Word and PowerPoint 365. Not all of these techniques apply to older or online versions of Office. “Alt text” is the name for alternative text in Word and PowerPoint, so it is the term typically used in this document. “Image” is used as a generic term for objects that can be given alt text. Word and PowerPoint files were created using the current versions of Microsoft 365 for Windows (2509) and PDFMaker (25.1.20). The PDFs created with Create PDF cloud service were created on October 29, 2025. The options to insert equations and symbols were not tested because they create text-based c…

Accessibility by Design: Preparing K–12 Schools for What’s Next
type: item
creator: Cynthia Curry
date: 2025-07-30T17:51:46Z
subject: Uncategorized
description: Delivering web and digital accessibility in any environment requires strategic planning and cross-organizational commitment. While the goal (ensuring that websites and digital platforms do not present barriers to individuals with disabilities) and the standards (the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) remain constant, implementation must be tailored to each organization’s needs and context. For K–12 educational agencies, […]
encoded: Delivering web and digital accessibility in any environment requires strategic planning and cross-organizational commitment. While the goal (ensuring that websites and digital platforms do not present barriers to individuals with disabilities) and the standards (the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) remain constant, implementation must be tailored to each organization’s needs and context. For K–12 educational agencies, including state educational agencies (SEAs) and school districts, digital accessibility efforts must align with existing priorities, practices, and policies. A one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t work. A Foundation in Special Education and Alternatives to Print Materials Since 1975, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has required that students with disabilities be provided access to the general education curriculum. When IDEA was last reauthorized in 2004, it included a provision that SEAs and districts provide accessible formats of print materials—such as braille, large print, digital text, and audio—to eligible students with disabilities. Each SEA is required to define what constitutes a “timely manner” for providing accessible formats. Most states have adopted a definition that aligns with the expectation that students with disabilities receive accessible formats at the same time as their peers without disabilities receive the print version of the materials. To help meet this requirement, Congress established the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) and the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC). Together, NIMAS and the NIMAC have supported the timely delivery of accessible formats in K–12 settings for nearly two decades. The Shift to Digital and New Challenges for Accessibility While IDEA remains grounded in the early 2000s, the instructional landscape in K-12 schools has rapidly shifted from print to digital. Relative to most higher education institutions, SEAs and school dist…

Up and Coming ARIA
type: item
creator: John Northup
date: 2025-05-30T18:19:41Z
subject: Uncategorized
description: If you work in web accessibility, you’ve probably spent a lot of time explaining and implementing the ARIA roles and attributes that have been around for years—things like aria-label, aria-labelledby, and role="dialog". But the ARIA landscape isn’t static. In fact, recent ARIA specifications (especially ARIA 1.3) include a number of emerging and lesser-known features that […]
encoded: If you work in web accessibility, you’ve probably spent a lot of time explaining and implementing the ARIA roles and attributes that have been around for years—things like aria-label, aria-labelledby, and role="dialog". But the ARIA landscape isn’t static. In fact, recent ARIA specifications (especially ARIA 1.3) include a number of emerging and lesser-known features that are quietly laying the groundwork for the next phase of inclusive web design. In this article, we’ll look at some of the “up and coming” ARIA features—some already supported, some just getting started, and some you might not have heard of. Think of these as tools to keep on your radar as browser and screen reader support continues to evolve. Environments Tested Windows 11: Current versions (May 2025) of JAWS, NVDA, and Narrator with Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. MacOS Sequoia: Current versions (May 2025) of VoiceOver with Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. iOS 18.4: VoiceOver with Safari. Android 15: TalkBack 15.2 with Chrome. New and Notable ARIA Attributes aria-errormessage This attribute lets you explicitly associate a custom error message with a form field when aria-invalid="true" is present. Unlike aria-describedby, which is often used generically, aria-errormessage gets announced only when the field is invalid—making it purpose-built for form error feedback. Support: Strong across JAWS, NVDA, and iOS VoiceOver, but limited elsewhere. aria-description This provides a programmatic description of an element that’s not necessarily visible on screen. It differs from aria-describedby in that it’s meant more as a supplement, such as content that is not visible in the page; not essential content. A practical example: a breadcrumb trail with aria-description="You are here:"—which offers helpful orientation to screen reader users without cluttering the visual design. Support: Surprisingly limited, with only NVDA and iOS VoiceOver currently handling it well. aria-details This attribute points to detailed, supple…

Global Digital Accessibility Salary Survey Results
type: item
creator: Jared Smith
date: 2025-02-27T20:45:03Z
subject: Uncategorized
description: In December 2024 WebAIM conducted a survey to collect salary and job-related data from professionals whose job responsibilities primarily focus on making technology and digital products accessible and usable to people with disabilities. 656 responses were collected. The full survey results are now available. This survey was conducted in conjunction with the GAAD Foundation. The GAAD […]
encoded: In December 2024 WebAIM conducted a survey to collect salary and job-related data from professionals whose job responsibilities primarily focus on making technology and digital products accessible and usable to people with disabilities. 656 responses were collected. The full survey results are now available. This survey was conducted in conjunction with the GAAD Foundation. The GAAD Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development to include accessibility as a core requirement. Survey Results Highlights Respondents that reported working full time reported an average salary of $109,542 US dollars (median = $96,100). Average salaries varied by country. 57.6% of respondents reported having a disability. Respondents with disabilities reported higher full-time salaries on average than respondents without disabilities. Blind respondents had the highest average salary of all disability types. Respondents with motor disabilities were the only disability category that reported lower average salaries than respondents without disabilities. 65% of respondents reported working at companies or organizations with over 1000 people. Employees for larger companies/organizations generally reported notably higher average salaries. Those who reported working in an office had notably lower salaries on average than respondents that reported working remotely or in hybrid environments. 22.5% of respondents worked for accessibility software, tools, or services companies. These respondents reported notably lower full-time salaries. More results are available in the full Salary Survey results report.

Join the Discussion—From Your Inbox
type: item
creator: George Joeckel
date: 2025-01-31T21:01:02Z
subject: Uncategorized
description: Which WebAIM resource had its 25th birthday on November 1, 2024? The answer is our Web Accessibility Email Discussion List! From the halcyon days when Hotmail had over 35 million users, to our modern era where Gmail has 2.5 billion users, the amount of emails in most inboxes has gone from a trickle to a […]
encoded: Which WebAIM resource had its 25th birthday on November 1, 2024? The answer is our Web Accessibility Email Discussion List! From the halcyon days when Hotmail had over 35 million users, to our modern era where Gmail has 2.5 billion users, the amount of emails in most inboxes has gone from a trickle to a flood. Over the last quarter century WebAIM has delivered over 80 million distinct emails to our list subscribers—currently over 2000 strong. These emails allow subscribers to participate in accessibility discussions across space and time. Who is the discussion list for? The WebAIM email discussion list is for anyone interested in discussing web accessibility issues. It’s a forum where those just starting out in the field can ask basic questions, where seasoned pros can pose deep-dive questions, and everything in between. It’s a great resource for learning about recent fixes for accessibility issues in digital tools, job opportunities in the accessibility field, virtual webinars, and free or low-cost resources. Do I have to post my questions to get answers? Nope. The archives have every one of over 48,000 questions and replies that have been posted so far, organized by month and year. Want to know what the hot topics were when Barbenheimer was in theaters, just click on the link for July 2023. And, hey, if you can read one message a minute and don’t sleep or eat (not recommended), you can read them all in about a month. For a more targeted approach, we’ve recently updated our search tool to select the most relevant messages for your keywords. What’s kept the discussion list going? Our contributors! Without regular contributors that share their knowledge about and passion for increasing web accessibility, there would be nothing to subscribe to, and no archives to explore. To those of you that have been a part of the discussion list, whether for decades or for days, we say “thank you” from the bottom of our hearts. What’s on the horizon—anything new in the works? Great…

Using Severity Ratings to Prioritize Web Accessibility Remediation
type: item
creator: Alaina Foust
date: 2024-11-22T18:30:01Z
subject: Uncategorized
description: So, you’ve found your website’s accessibility issues using WAVE or other testing tools, and by completing manual testing using a keyboard, a screen reader, and zooming the browser window. Now what? When it comes to prioritizing web accessibility fixes, ranking the severity of each issue is an effective way to prioritize and make impactful improvements. […]
encoded: So, you’ve found your website’s accessibility issues using WAVE or other testing tools, and by completing manual testing using a keyboard, a screen reader, and zooming the browser window. Now what? When it comes to prioritizing web accessibility fixes, ranking the severity of each issue is an effective way to prioritize and make impactful improvements. In WebAIM’s accessibility audits, each issue we identify is assigned one of four levels of severity based on how it impacts end users. In this article, we’ll go over these severity ratings for accessibility and the types of issues that typically fall under these categories. Critical Issues Accessibility issues that fall under the critical rating cause web content or functionality to be completely inaccessible to some users. To determine if an issue is critical, consider if a group of users is completely unable to access a specific type of web content. Critical issues typically impact screen reader users and users who navigate using the keyboard. For example, when interactive elements cannot be reached using the keyboard, these users cannot perform important tasks like using navigation menus or selecting elements like buttons or custom form inputs. Using native HTML elements whenever possible and incorporating keyboard and screen reader testing into the development lifecycle can ensure that these issues are avoided. Other examples of critical issues might be videos without captions that prevent users who are deaf and hard of hearing from accessing media or content that strobes or flashes in a way that may cause seizures for users with photosensitive epilepsy. Significant Issues Accessibility issues that fall under the significant rating cause web content or functionality to be very difficult for some users to interact with or use effectively. A common example of a significant issue is missing visual focus indicators. For users who navigate using the keyboard, missing visual focus indicators make it extremely difficult …