Accessibility and the Agentic Web

Summary

Accessibility and the agentic web Posted on Friday, 8 August 2025 by Léonie Watson in Strategy, User experience Imagine being in a department store that sells clothes from multiple brands and having a personal shopping assistant to help you select the clothes you want to buy. As a blind person, that's about the only way it's possible to go clothes shopping, independently at least, but few stores offer such a service, so you resort to shopping online. Except that retail websites are rarely accessible enough to make purchasing clothes much more than an exercise in “buy six things and return five". This isn't necessarily because the websites themselves are inaccessible, in the sense of being able to search for products, find out a little about them, add them to your basket or checkout, though that's not uncommon. It's that even the most accessible retail websites don't provide enough information to let you confidently make a choice, unless you can see the product images that is. Let's take an example from a UK high street retailer: Long sleeve Knitted jumper Crew neck It comes in black 100% Cotton. You might think that's an adequate description, but if I were to ask you if the jumper is plain or ribbed, or if it falls to the hips or thighs in length, or if it's lightweight or chunky, could you tell me? A different UK retailer does a bit better: Crafted from soft pure merino wool, this jumper is a luxurious addition to your knitwear collection. It's crafted to a relaxed fit for endless layering options. A flattering v-neckline keeps things stylish, while cosy long sleeves with ribbed trims add a neat finish to this timeless piece. But even so, what does relaxed mean, is it a deep V-neck, is the rib trim just on the sleeves or around the neck and/or bottom too? Enter AI Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools that can generate image descriptions are helpful in this context. My screen reader now has a feature that lets me request an image description from ChatGPT or Claude wit...