As technology leaders, we understand that certain principles are foundational. Like scalability, accessibility (often abbreviated as a11y) isn't a feature you add to your product after the fact; it's an awareness and an approach that must be deeply embedded in the way you build. Teams that follow these core fundamentals have already made it easier for people and tools to use their sites effectively.
Now, a powerful new reason to prioritize accessibility has emerged, and it's poised to reshape the web: AI.
The Rise of the Agentic Web
The internet is undergoing a fundamental shift. The "agentic web" is quickly becoming a major focus area, with many sites already reporting that a significant amount of their traffic is originating not from human-driven browsers, but from AI agents. These agents are tasked by users to perform actions, gather information, and interact with services on their behalf.
In this new paradigm, being "agentic web friendly" is becoming the new SEO. If an AI can't understand or effectively navigate your site, you will become invisible to a growing portion of online activity.
The good news? If you've been building for accessibility, you've already done most of the work.
Why AI Prefers an Accessible Website
It turns out that machines, much like humans using assistive technologies, respect and prefer standards-based development. An AI agent, like a screen reader, needs to parse the structure and meaning of a page to understand its content and functionality. A wall of non-descriptive <div> tags is just as confusing to an AI as it is to a person with a visual impairment.
The core practices of a11y are precisely what an AI needs to do its job:
- Semantic HTML (
<nav>,<article>,<footer>): This tells an AI the purpose of each section, distinguishing navigation from main content from a footer. - Descriptive Alt Tags on Images: This provides crucial context about visual elements that the AI cannot "see."
- ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) Attributes: These describe the roles, states, and properties of complex UI components like menus or sliders, explaining their function.
- Hierarchical Document Structure (Proper use of
<h1>,<h2>, etc.): This creates a logical outline of the page, allowing the AI to understand the priority and relationship of content.
Building your site to be usable by AI aligns perfectly with the usability standards of a11y.
Accessibility is the Future
If you haven't already adapted your teams to the practice of building for universal access, the case has never been stronger. The conversation is no longer limited to compliance, ethics, or even reaching a wider human audience.
Accessibility is now a strategic imperative for future relevance. It's more than just a nice-to-have; it's how your product will be seen, understood, and utilized by the next generation of the web.