Making Immersive LLM Chat Experiences More Accessible
Smashing Magazine · 产品与设计
I have had the privilege of helping to improve the accessibility of multiple immersive LLM chat experiences in the course of my career. Now I want to share this knowledge with you. Accessibility is a core part of a functional digital experience. As the LLM chat pattern continues to spread like wildfire across the web, we risk excluding people if these experiences are not built with accessibility as a core consideration. It is also worth re-mentioning what “exclusion” means here : It’s the loss of knowledge, the loss of opportunity, the loss of utility, the loss of employability, the loss of entertainment, and more. What Is An Immersive LLM Chat Experience? “Immersive LLM chat experience” is a catch-all term for full-screen experiences like Claude , ChatGPT , GitHub Copilot , Gemini , America.gov , Glean , and other similar websites and web apps: The majority of what this post covers applies to both web apps and native apps . This is because these experiences are typically built using web technologies, then placed in a native wrapper via frameworks such as Electron or Tauri . Immersive LLM chat experiences are not patterns such as a pop-up chat, inline text generation utilities, or summarization tools. These simpler applications of LLM technology will have different considerations and expectations. Instead, this is a starting point for making those other experiences accessible. Reframing There is nothing special about chat-based UIs when viewed via the lens of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines . They are interactive experiences, built using web technologies. The losses I’ve described — and the legal liability associated with them — are access barriers in the same way any other web content can be an access barrier. I would also like to mention the social model of disability here: the idea that exclusion can be created by the built environment. For example, consider an elevated entryway that uses a gently sloping ramp in place of stairs. Built environments also