Striving to remove barriers that prevent us from building Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities!
Natalie P. Tucker, Senior Accessibility Services Consultant at Knowbility, USA answers GAAD co-founder Jennison Asuncion’s question “Is the internet more accessible than it was 10 years ago?” for the Global Accessibility Pulse 2026 for GAAD and Intopia.
Transcript:
Title card & Voice over: Natalie P. Tucker, Senior Accessibility Services Consultant, Knowbility, USA, contributes to the Global Accessibility Pulse 2026 for GAAD and Intopia.
Natalie P. Tucker: Is the internet more accessible than it was 10 years ago?
The honest answer is yes, and also not in the ways that matter most. We've made real progress. Accessibility is now a part of how many organisations build products. Design systems are stronger. Teams are thinking about accessibility earlier. 10 years ago, most companies didn't even have a strategy, and now many do.
But the actual user experience is inconsistent — and at scale, often getting worse. The WebAIM Million report shows error rates going up, not down, and that reflects what's happening in practice.
We're building more complex interfaces, shipping faster, and now AI is generating code for people who may never have learned accessibility fundamentals. So we're producing more software and more barriers at the same time.
A lot of accessibility work is still driven by compliance. Compliance is a low bar. You can meet WCAG and still deliver a frustrating experience for people with disabilities.
What gives me some optimism is that we have better tools, stronger communities, and more awareness than ever before.
And the real question isn't whether the internet is more accessible. It's whether we're willing to treat accessibility as a core measure of product quality, not just a requirement. Because until we do that, progress will stay uneven and, for many people, invisible.
End card & Voice over: Watch all the responses to the Global Accessibility Pulse 2026 at intopia.digital/global-accessibility-pulse-2026. End card also features logos for the Global Accessibility Pulse, GAAD and Intopia.
