As We Celebrate IDPD, It’s Time to Center Accessibility in the AI Era

On this International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), the technology industry has a unique opportunity to recommit, not just to incremental improvements, but to accessibility by default. As AI, XR, and next-gen interfaces rapidly reshape our digital lives, we must ensure that the people historically excluded from “mainstream” design are centered. Both Apple and Microsoft offer valuable glimpses of what inclusive design can look like, but the challenge now is to make that vision universal.

Below is a unified look at what Microsoft and Apple have shipped, what those efforts signal about the promise of accessible AI, and why the next frontier must embed accessibility at the foundation, not treat it as an add-on.

What Microsoft & Apple Delivered in 2025

🎙 Voice, Speech & Input: More Natural, More Inclusive

• On the Microsoft side: Fluid Dictation offers real-time grammar, punctuation, and on-device processing, enabling more natural speech-to-text workflows. And Voice Access has improved command flexibility, speech timing, custom vocabulary, and expanded language support.

  
  

• On Apple’s side: Their “Designed for Every Student” initiative highlights a wide range of built-in tools for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even mixed-reality devices (e.g., Apple Vision Pro). These include VoiceOver (screen-reader), Braille Screen Input / Braille Access, and text / speech customization, unlocking multiple pathways for people with varying speech, motor, hearing or vision needs.

  
  

🔊 Visual, Text & Environment Accessibility: Bridging Senses and Spaces

• Microsoft introduced more natural voices for screen reading (e.g., Narrator), richer image and content descriptions for on-screen and embedded visuals, and support for Braille as a built-in option.

  
  

• Apple offers tools like Magnifier (camera-based zoom and object/text detection), Accessibility Reader (adjustable fonts, spacing, color,  including real-world documents captured via camera), plus support for Live Captions, Name & Sound Recognition, and customizable accessibility modes.

  
  

🧰 Built-in, Universal Accessibility: Not Just Features, But Foundation

• Microsoft continues to emphasize a design ethos rooted in co-design with disability communities: “nothing about us, without us.”

  
  

• Apple’s “Designed for Every Student” demonstrates a long-term commitment: their devices ship with these accessibility tools built-in. That means students and users don’t need extra hardware or separate investments, accessibility is baked into the ecosystem.

  
  

Why These Efforts Matter, And Why They Point to What’s Possible

AI + Built-in Accessibility: A Powerful Intersection

When companies use AI and smart software not just for novelty, but to improve core accessibility, converting voice to text, reading out images, offering braille support, enabling camera-based magnification, they reshape what “usable computing” means. For many, these are not optional perks, they are essential.

With both Microsoft and Apple delivering tools across voice, vision, hearing, motor, and cognitive domains, we see a blueprint: inclusive design that doesn’t wait for special settings.

But Without Intentional Strategy, Innovation Could Exclude

The advances are encouraging, but they remain within the existing paradigms of PC, tablet, mobile. As AI, XR, spatial computing, and immersive experiences become mainstream, there’s a real risk: accessibility becomes fragmented or forgotten altogether.

Mixed-reality environments, AI agents, 3D interfaces, if built without inclusive design, may end up even less accessible than traditional computing. The fragmentation across platforms can create new barriers instead of removing old ones.

Apple and Microsoft’s efforts prove it doesn’t have to be that way. But sustaining inclusion requires leadership, resources, and a persistent commitment, especially as DEI and accessibility programs in many organizations face budget and priority cuts.

What “Accessibility as Core” Should Mean Across the Tech Industry

To build a future where AI and XR benefit everyone, not just a subset, here’s what companies should anchor themselves to:

1. Accessibility-by-default across all products: Every new device, OS, app, or platform should ship with assistive modalities built in, not as optional extras.

   
   

2. Multimodal parity: Visual, auditory, touch, text, and braille interfaces should all be treated as equally valid first-class interactions, with seamless switching between them.

   
   

3. AI that adapts to human diversity: Recognition of varied speech patterns, accents, usage contexts (mobility limitations, low-bandwidth, offline), neurodiversity, multiple languages.

   
   

4. Inclusive XR and spatial UI design: As we move into 3D, mixed reality, and immersive environments, ensure non-visual accessibility, navigation alternatives, captioning, text/audio description, and assistive controls are built in from the ground up.

   
   

5. Sustained community co-design and feedback: Engage disability communities, accessibility experts, and diverse users at every stage of design, development, and deployment.

   
   

The Imperative: Inclusion at the Speed of Innovation

Accessibility cannot survive as an afterthought in an AI-first world.

It cannot depend on voluntary advocacy.

And it cannot be relegated to moments of recognition like IDPD alone.

The 2025 Windows Accessibility recap shows what’s possible when accessibility and AI come together. Now, the industry needs to amplify that mindset, not retreat from it, even as DEI and accessibility budgets shrink.

As we celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the charge is clear:

The next era of AI and XR must be built for everyone, from the very start.

If we design for the margins, we lift up the center.

If we center accessibility, we build a future that is truly inclusive.