Is the AI-Generated Web for Everyone?: Examining the Accessibility of AI-Generated Code by Generative Code Tools in Transition from Prototype to Development
2024 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
Accessibility in web development is a subject which has garnered increasing attention over the last few years due to the introduction of heightened compliance laws. Occurring during a time of rapid growth for commercial generative artificial intelligence, many tools that assist in the web development process, such as generative code tools for front end development, have been created. This paper sets out to evaluate some of these tools from an accessibility standpoint: is the code generated by these tools accessible? How can these tools be utilized to facilitate the generation of accessible code? The goal was to get a detailed view of the level of accessibility possible for different levels of effort in using generative code tools. Testing was conducted on code generated by two prototype-to-code plugins on a web prototype in various stages of completeness, using the generative code tools to various levels of advanced functionality. The results show a lack of accessibility in all generated code, regardless of best practices in the prototype or usage of advanced features in the generative code tools themselves. Using automatic checkers also proved to be an insufficient way to check automatically generated code, as several false positives caused by poor code flew under the radar. However, the tools are capable of solving some simpler problems by themselves but require further development to live up to current standards of both web development and accessibility. Further testing on a smaller scale could yield deeper insight into how to best leverage these tools to solve more specific problems.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024.
Keywords [en]
Accessibility, Accessible Code, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Automatic, Code Generation, Digital Accessibility, Keyboard Navigation, Prototype to Code, Screen Reader, WCAG, Web Accessibility, Web Development
National Category
Information Systems
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-49109OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-49109DiVA, id: diva2:1885268
Subject / course
Informatics
2024-07-222024-07-222025-10-09