START-UPS
DevA11y: Using AI to make apps and websites more accessible
From left: Cormac Chisholm and Patrick Guiney
Founded earlier this year by Cormac Chisholm and Patrick Guiney, DevA11y is part of the latest NDRC accelerator cohort which kicked off last month.
In 2024, digital products are ubiquitous. They’re intertwined with our daily lives to an extent never seen before. And yet, a large proportion of the digital space is inaccessible to those with disabilities, from ADHD and dyslexia to autism.
According to Patrick Guiney, co-founder of AI accessibility platform DevA11y, more than 90pc of the top 1m websites on the internet have accessibility issues – even though 16pc of people identify as having some form of disability.
“We’re living in an age where digital products are unusable by an enormous demographic,” said Guiney, who is chief operating officer of the start-up dually based in Dublin and San Francisco.
“We can boil this down to two issues: businesses aren’t prioritising inclusive design and that building accessible products is incredibly difficult.”
‘Noticeable shift in priorities’
Founded earlier this year, DevA11y wants to make building accessible products easy for businesses so that the digital world can be opened up to everyone, regardless of their disabilities.
To that end, [...]
Read article at siliconrepublic.com (Provides limited free articles.)