Author | Lightnews

Nirho

Nirho

@nirho.bsky.social

120 followers 330 following 110 posts

Private Pilot, Digital Accessibility consultant. www.NirA11y.com

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Reposted by Nirho

Beaches App @beachesapp.bsky.social · Sep 25

Surf Etiquette & Rules

1. Give right of way to the surfer that has waited the longest, is closest to the peak or is the first on their feet onto the wave.
2. Communicate. Call “left!” or “right!” if the wave is dual-peaking.
3. Don’t drop in or cut in front of other surfers.

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 21

Full post: www.nira11y.com/post/the-5th...

The 5th Motivation for Accessibility: Brand and Marketing - The Binary Choice

This is why accessibility colors your brand with such positive perception, and rightfully so. When you make your products accessible, you're demonstrating core values that customers want to align with...

www.nira11y.com

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 21

This builds on the foundational four motivations: market expansion, product improvement, legal compliance, and ethical imperatives.
What examples have you observed of companies successfully leveraging inclusive design for brand advantage?

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 21

Strategic opportunity:
While competitors treat accessibility as compliance overhead, forward-thinking organisations position it as competitive differentiation and authentic brand storytelling.

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 21

Domino's Pizza fought accessibility compliance through six years of litigation rather than addressing basic website barriers. Result: significant reputational damage and legal costs.

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 21

Case examples:
@Apple positions accessibility features as innovation showcases, demonstrating technology enabling creative expression. Result: brand differentiation and market leadership in inclusion values.

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 21

Conversely, companies fighting accessibility face legal costs, reputational damage, and lost market share.

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 21

You cannot remain neutral on accessibility. Your brand is either:

Champions of inclusion
Barriers to access

Companies embracing accessibility gain loyal advocates from the disability community (17% of global population) plus socially conscious consumers.

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 21

Thread: The accessibility motivation that determines brand positioning
In my latest post, I explore the fifth motivation for digital inclusion: brand perception operates on a strict binary.
#Accessibility #BrandStrategy #InclusiveDesign #BusinessStrategy #MarketResearch #a11y

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 8

Bottom line: Stop waiting for perfect AI. Start making it better.
The web won't become accessible through perfect audits of 1% of sites. It needs good-enough tools that work everywhere.
Full thoughts: www.nira11y.com/post/ai1y-ai...
9/9

AI1y (AI and A11y) – Part III: Can I Trust AI to Be Right 100% of the Time for Accessibility?

But here's what we often forget humans aren't perfect either. And humans make different kinds of mistakes that we've just gotten used to. What are the odds you'll catch every missing alt tag across 10...

www.nira11y.com

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 8

I don't know any serious tools claiming full AI accessibility audits yet.
But good tools with partial WCAG coverage exist and they're improving fast.
The bad tools making false claims? Yeah, those exist too.
8/9

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 8

The goal isn't blind trust in AI. It's:

Making AI tools better, faster
Integrating them into workflows
Catching issues that would never be found manually
Scaling accessibility to internet size
7/9

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 8

We're at the same moment with web accessibility.
Waiting for perfect AI = keeping the web broken for millions of people with disabilities.
Using improving AI = potential biggest accessibility breakthrough ever.
6/9

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 8

Think about the self-driving car debate:
People worry about AI edge cases while humans crash constantly from texting, drinking, fatigue.
Tesla's already much safer than human drivers. Not perfect, but better.
5/9
www.tesla.com/VehicleSafet...

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 8

What really excites me: every time we correct an AI mistake, it gets better for EVERYONE using that system.
That's accessibility at scale. Not one site at a time, but millions of sites.
Same challenge I worked on at Wix.
4/9

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 8

Reality check: Most websites NEVER get accessibility audits at all.
So AI tools that are "only" 95% accurate could help way more people than perfect human audits that only happen on a tiny fraction of sites.
3/9

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 8

Here's what I've been thinking about:
AI isn't perfect, but it's improving incredibly fast. Human accuracy? Pretty much stays the same.
And honestly? Humans make plenty of mistakes too - we just don't talk about them as much.
2/9

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Sep 8

🧵 "Can we trust AI to be 100% accurate for accessibility audits?"
This comes up in every AI + accessibility conversation I have.
Short answer: No. But that's the wrong question.
#WebAccessibility #AI #DigitalInclusion #WCAG #AccessibilityAudits #a11y #accessibility #AI #Scale
1/9

Reposted by Nirho

Beaches App @beachesapp.bsky.social · Sep 4

Your beach day isn’t just about the sun. 🌴
With Beaches App, you’ll know:
❌ When water quality is unsafe
☀️ When UV is too high
👥 How crowded the beach is
Plan smarter. Swim safer. 🌊

#BeachesApp #BeachDay #Beach #Ocean

Mobile app screen showing a water quality alert at Venice Beach Hostel: “Bacteria levels exceed health standards. Avoid water contact in the closure area.” The app also displays poor water quality, low UV index, wave height, wind speed, direction, and visibility.

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Aug 19

Great Disability Awareness Calendar by Micro Assist
www.microassist.com/digital-acce...

Disability Awareness Calendar

Accessibility resources from Microassist. October awareness spotlights on Disability Employment Awareness and Neurodiversity.

www.microassist.com

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Aug 14

Wrote about this in Part I of my A11M series on accessibility and LLMs: open.substack.com/pub/nira11y/...
Curious about your thoughts on accessibility in an AI-mediated web.
#Accessibility #AI #WebAccessibility #LLM #a11y

on A11y and LLMs

open.substack.com

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Aug 14

I'm not suggesting accessibility becomes less important, but trying to understand what it means when websites become information repositories accessed mainly through AI. Should WCAG and other guidelines adapt?

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Aug 14

Now LLMs can browse and extract information from websites for us, even from inaccessible ones. If users primarily access web content through AI chat rather than visiting sites directly, what does this mean for accessibility?

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Aug 14

We've spent years solving accessibility for web innovations: alt text for images, captions for videos, reduced motion for animations. Yet 95% of websites still have accessibility barriers.

Nirho @nirho.bsky.social · Aug 14

Chat interfaces take us back to the web's text-based origins. The content written in those early days can be fully consumed with any screen reader, operated with keyboard navigation, and is actually fully accessible according to any standard we have today.