Web accessibility overlay vendors made false advertising claims about their AI-powered products' ability to automatically make websites compliant with accessibility standards, harming both customers and people with disabilities who were denied proper access.
Multiple web accessibility overlay vendors including accessiBe, UserWay, EqualWeb, Allyable, AudioEye, and others made false advertising claims about their AI-powered products that purport to automatically make websites accessible to people with disabilities. These companies claimed their products could achieve full compliance with standards like WCAG 2.1 and ADA requirements within 24-48 hours by adding a single line of code, and that customers would be protected from lawsuits. However, over 600 accessibility professionals signed a statement against these products, and over 200 companies were sued in 2021 despite having overlay products installed, with 95 of those using accessiBe. The vendors made numerous false claims including exaggerated customer numbers, fake customer testimonials, claims of collaboration with assistive technology developers that never occurred, and promises that their AI widgets could replace specialized assistive technologies. The report documents how these false claims harm both the customers who believe they have achieved accessibility compliance and people with disabilities who continue to face barriers on websites using these products. The overlay products cannot actually repair underlying accessibility issues in website code and provide inferior functionality compared to built-in operating system accessibility features.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed