A rant following other rants

March 4th 2024

This blog is still in its infancy and I’d not planned to post much else than inspirational content, showcase some amazing work and highlight how much good there is on the web. I pondered whether eventually, I might write the odd blog post or two ~ this being a blog after all…

And here I am – feeling an urge to publish a post, ahem, a rant – triggered by one article, published 29/02/2024 by Jakob Nielsen [1]. Certain things just have to be addressed….

When I was learning coding (HTML/CSS)—which was quite a challenge and a battle for me back in the day—I first read an article from Jakob Nielsen who was stating all links on the web should be blue and underlined to remain accessible. I still remember this very feeling of … confusion and despair, and then soon replaced by … well, fury, for lack of a better word… It threw me, made me doubt whether I’d even want to learn coding if it meant design would be thrown out of the window…. Later, of course, I understood his point, and ended up learning a lot from him and the NN/g. So he is (or maybe was?) not all bad.

The article

But this article…?!?! … honestly….!!! What a load of…….
Accessibility Has Failed: Try Generative UI = Individualized UX

Ironically, or fittingly, I came across this article via one of the pioneers of web standards, John Allsopp [2] on Mastodon:

Reading Neilsen’s fantastical piece on how generative AI will magically solve 40 years of “failed” efforts around accessibility it’s not surprising the icon commonly used for AI in products is a magic wand or similar.

John Allsopp • 3/3/2024
image via Practical Tips by Matt May

The reactions

My own reaction was that I just read the whole piece shaking my head, seeing the AI generated images, reading the utter BS published by someone who has a built himself up as an expert in the field. Someone whose direct statements often sounded harsh but made their point well, and for good reasons. Someone who managed to put users first and counter opposing arguments well enough to convince. Someone who gets quoted to highlight aspects of accessibility and user experience….

What irks me most about this is the boldness of the statement and how misleading it will be for those who look to this author for expertise and guidance ~ the summary alone makes it clear why this article should not have made it online:

Summary: Traditional methods for accessibility have been tried for 30 years without substantially improving computer usability for disabled users. It’s time for a change, and AI will soon come to the rescue with the ability to generate a different user interface for every user, optimized for that person’s unique needs.

Jakob Nielsen

I really cannot understand how he could write—and publish?!?!!!?—such a post? ~ It was like a flash-back to those early days when I had such dislike for the man and the way he expressed his points with such arrogance. Now it seems that side has taken over and is screwing perspectives for those hoping to be informed by, or learn from, this self-proclaimed ‘usability pioneer’…

Stating that accessibility, and all the work done by so mane so far have essentially failed in the effort to be “substantially improving computer usability for disabled users” is a bold and entirely wrong statement. While many of us cannot truely know ~ Léonie can. And her article (Nielsen needs to think again) does explain this so excellently ~ how dare anyone, never mind someone who claims to be an expert in his field, make such a statement without considering the reality, without considering, or talking to, disabled users who would surely be able to explain their own, actually lived experience. And to literally dismiss the efforts of the many accessibility groups, experts and advocates in such a patronising tone just makes my blood boil….

Worst of all is that there will be people—who with the best intentions to do right by everyone—will read this and might be mistakenly guided into the wrong direction. They might conclude that all their websites might need is the plugging in of some AI tool to cover the accessibility needs of many ~ what a nightmare! And what a disaster this could become… it is the absoluteness of his phrasing that makes the article so enfuriating.

It’s not about being against AI per se, it is too early to conclude much at this point. This is not to say that I am not hoping that AI might eventually be capable of bringing some benefits to accessibility—in due course! It would be amazing if AI tools could contribute to the efforts of making online content accessible and therefore more inclusive. But this is yet to be seen and likely a long way off at this stage.

Related reading

Footnotes
  1. co-founder of the Nieson Norman Group, view profile[↩︎]
  2. author of article ‘A Dao of Web Design‘ (published on A List Apart in 2000) which stood the test of time[↩︎]
  3. accessibility expert, director of Tetralogical[↩︎]