AI, Screen Readers, and the Real User Experience | Fentimans Sparking Victorian Lemonade

How is AI actually changing the way people use assistive technology, and what happens when AI lets developers move faster than they can realistically review their own work?

In this episode of Accessibility Craft, Chris is joined by DevOps engineer and accessibility consultant Alex Stine, along with returning guest and Equalize Digital team member William, for a wide-ranging conversation about AI, accessibility, screen readers, coding agents, and the growing tension between speed and reliability. Alex shares firsthand examples of using AI to make inaccessible PDFs, charts, weather data, and other visual information more usable in his own day-to-day, while the group digs into the accessibility problems that still exist in many AI interfaces.

They also compare how they use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, GitHub Copilot, and other AI tools professionally and personally, including AI-assisted coding, research, automation, and building custom software. They don't shy away from the messy bits: excessive context switching, enormous AI-generated pull requests, production outages, unreliable output, and why "the AI did it" is not a very convincing excuse.

For the beverage tasting, Chris and Alex try Fentimans Victorian Lemonade, while William attempts a homemade substitute. Reviews are... mixed.

For show notes and a full transcript, go to AccessibilityCraft.com/176.