As people shift their shopping and other habits online, AccessiBe was a technology company created to make websites more accessible, specifically for the visually impaired. However, according to NBC News, people with blindness have said the product is actually making it harder for them to navigate the web. Recently, people with blindness and disability advocates have voiced their opinions on social media and sued companies that use AccessiBe. They explain that the application that is supposed to make websites more compatible with screen readers has prevented them from undergoing many online activities such as paying rent, buying clothes, etc. According to Lucy Greco, a blind individual and the head of Web Accessibility at the University of California Berkeley, AccessiBe is the largest automated accessibility company on the market. The problem has grown in severity. In the past two months, 400 signatures from people, visually impaired, were on an open letter calling out companies that use automated services, like AccessiBe, and urging other companies with similar products to stop,” says NBC News.
AccessiBe markets itself on its website as an application that prices $49 a month to help companies protect themselves from not complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act, which guarantees equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, government services, etc., by adding a single line of code to the backends of websites. They pride themselves on the fact that over 132,000 websites use its product, some of the more well-known ones being Pillsbury, Benadryl, Playmobil, and the Los Angeles Lakers.
While the company celebrates its growth and funding, many individuals with blindness and disability advocates have voiced that they are experiencing problems when utilizing websites that have installed AccessiBe, saying that when they visit, it can prevent screen readers from reading the pages correctly and has rendered some unnavigable. After Steve Clower’s, a blind software developer specializing in accessibility, apartment’s rent payment website adopted AccessiBe, he said the compatibility with his screen reader was so thrown off that he had to get his friend to help him with the rent for that month. The experience was so frustrating that he published a guide to block AccessiBe that he named “AccessiBe Gone.”
Rebutting, Shir Ekerling, the CEO of the company, in an email, wrote, “Almost no one gives any specifics to actual websites that really don’t work for them. This is because they don’t really test us, nor have really used us. At most, they went on a website out of anger and didn’t even try to understand.”
AccessiBe isn’t the only application that claims to provide a quick, automated solution to make websites compliant with accessibility standards. Greco has said other companies with similar products have had many of the same issues that AccessiBe has encountered. However, NBC News says it is AccessiBe that has stood out the most because of its rapid growth, heavy marketing, and defensive style of engaging with blind people who arise with claims of problems.
Recently, AccessiBe has been cited in at least two lawsuits by people who claim the websites don’t comply with the ADA. The company’s framework that it provides web accessibility to help avoid lawsuits does not help its relationship with those visually impaired. The problems between the company and its user only seem to be growing more controversial, as blind users say they can’t escape its presence in the visually impaired community. Haben Girma, a civil rights lawyer and an author who is deaf and blind said, “They have spent an alarming amount of money on advertising. Encountering these ads online feels like a personal attack on my humanity.” The significant fear that the visually impaired community share is that members of the blind public new to screen readers will be kept from accessing parts of the internet.