Accessibility

how you ensure your content is accessible and inclusive for all audiences

AI can make content easier to reach for more people, or it can leave some audiences out. This card is about making sure your work is accessible and inclusive across languages, abilities, and access to technology. A team pauses here to ask who its content actually reaches.

Questions to explore

// use these as prompts in a workshop or on your own. There are no right answers.

Who might be left out by the way you produce and publish your content?
How could AI help make your work more accessible across abilities and languages?
Where might AI tools create new barriers for parts of your audience?
How do you check that AI-generated captions, translations, or summaries are accurate enough to rely on?
Which audiences do you rarely think about when you design your content?

Expert voices

// notes from the journalists and AI experts who helped shape this kit

“AI can make journalism more accessible: auto-captions, audio descriptions, and simplified language versions expand reach to underserved audiences.”

Lynn Khellaf, DW

“Hurdles for access are real: costs, lack of electricity, mobile data, skills, awareness, and digital literacy all stand between your journalism and its audience.”

Peter Deselaers, DW Akademie

“Automatically generated subtitles in multiple languages and descriptions of visual elements make audiovisual content accessible, expanding reach with relatively low investment.”

Michelle Nogales, Muy Waso

Things to consider

AI can widen access or narrow it, depending on how it is used.
An automated translation or caption still needs a human check before you trust it.
The audiences you overlook are the ones most easily left behind.

using this card

Pull Accessibility when it is relevant and set it aside when it is not. Pair it with the other AI Conversations cards, lay them out on a table, and use the questions above to get everyone on the same page. Capture what you discuss on sticky notes or in a shared doc.