From compliance to inclusion: Reimagining digital accessibility

The rapid adoption of generative AI and agentic AI into enterprise workflows transforms accessibility, moving it from a compliance-driven task to an embedded, intelligent, and inclusive digital experience. For organizations, this shift expands beyond compliance standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to reduce rework costs, mitigate litigation risks, and create inclusive experiences for every user. By integrating accessible design, content, and user stories with AI-powered tools, enterprises can move past the compliance checkbox and build accessibility as a core design principle within their workflows.

Accessibility and the AI shift

Enterprises are moving from rule-based automation to adaptive, generative intelligence that learns, reasons, and acts. GenAI introduces a new paradigm with contextual understanding, natural language processing, and adaptive learning, enabling systems to interact with users in human-like and intuitive ways. Agentic AI takes this further by letting autonomous agents act on behalf of the users, reducing cognitive and physical efforts.

Together, these innovations hold the potential to fundamentally transform how digital systems perceive, engage, and support users with different abilities.

Real-world use cases: Inclusive innovation in action

Let’s look at a few examples of how AI-driven accessibility is being applied in practice, including several that align with the kind of client solutions we explore regularly:

Conversational UI for the visually impaired

GenAI-powered voice interfaces now provide dynamic navigation beyond traditional accessibility modes. It includes reading out content, summarizing key actions on a screen, or answering contextual queries like “What’s my next best action?” for enterprise portals.

For instance, we worked on enhancing an internal knowledge hub, where users can now ask questions conversationally. The AI translates complex, visually oriented content into accessible, conversational outputs, providing summaries and guidance via voice or screen-reader-friendly formats. 

Form-filling agents for users with motor impairments

Imagine a user with limited hand mobility navigating a complex healthcare claim form. With an agentic AI overlay, we can now build assistants that automatically fetch required data, pre-fill forms, and validate inputs, triggered by a simple voice command or a few keystrokes.

This is a real, deployable capability, and Virtusa has been embedding agentic AI into client ecosystems to accelerate real-time digital experiences.

Real-time captioning and emotional context reading

Beyond standard closed captioning, genAI models can now generate live context-aware summaries of meetings or learning sessions, and even adjust the emotional tone of the conversation based on user preferences. It is helpful for neurodiverse users or those with hearing impairments.

We recently explored this for a global learning platform, where AI was used to caption and translate complex technical jargon into plain language. This made knowledge more accessible to learners of different comprehension levels. 

Proactively addressing accessibility with genAI

One of the most exciting shifts is how genAI enables accessibility to be embedded from initial design through the development lifecycle. Instead of retrofitting fixes after user testing, we can now use AI-driven design assistants that:

• Flag non-compliant patterns early in the design process
• Suggest alternatives aligned to WCAG 2.2
• Simulate experiences for users with different impairments
• Auto-generate alt text, label structures, or voice prompts
• Personalize interface layouts based on past user interaction data

This shift goes beyond workflow efficiency; it’s about making inclusive design accessible and scalable for everyone.

From compliance to compassion

Let’s be clear, accessibility regulations such as the ADA, WCAG, and Section 508 remain essential, setting an important baseline of compliance and accountability. But we’re now moving toward an empathetic design culture, where AI helps us understand the lived experiences of users beyond just technical checkboxes.

Industry research shows the measurable business outcome of accessibility. According to a report by McKinsey, businesses prioritizing accessible and inclusive customer experiences see a 20% increase in customer satisfaction and a 15% boost in loyalty. Additionally, these companies often achieve revenue growth rates 1.4 times higher than their less inclusive counterparts. As digital natives demand more inclusive experiences, accessibility is fast becoming a brand differentiator.

The road ahead: Agentic empathy

Looking ahead, an important development is agentic empathy, where AI agents assist users while adapting to each individual’s capabilities, emotional state, and intent in real-time. For example, a virtual banking assistant that recognizes cognitive fatigue can slow down the interaction, simplify language, or even switch modalities from voice to visual, depending on the user’s needs, without requiring the user to configure settings. Agentic AI can empower people of all abilities, individuals with limited digital literacy, older adults, or first-time users of technology. By lowering cognitive and technical barriers, these systems can democratize access to digital services, ensuring more people can participate confidently in the digital economy.

The path forward lies in combining the right training data, ethical governance, and continuous user feedback to create hyper-personalized, dignity-first experiences.

AI is often described as transformative, yet accessibility is where this transformation becomes truly human. As technologists, designers, and leaders, we must ask ourselves what AI can do and who it can empower. At Virtusa, we believe in building future-ready solutions that ensure no one is left behind. With the emergence of genAI and agentic AI, that vision is becoming a tangible reality.