AI as an Accessibility Tool

Technology as a bridge, not a barrier.

Purpose

This archive explores how AI systems can extend accessibility — not just for mobility, hearing, or sight, but for executive function, cognitive overload, and the invisible weight of bureaucracy. Tools that summarize, organize, or transcribe are not luxuries; they are extensions of access itself.

When used responsibly, AI amplifies independence for people who navigate complex systems while disabled, neurodivergent, or chronically ill. The same automation that powers surveillance can also serve self-advocacy.

Ethical Context

Accessibility work begins with consent and context. Every model used within the Onion Madder OSINT archive is filtered through those ethics: transparency, traceability, and user control. No AI system replaces human judgment — it supplements the effort required to translate raw bureaucracy into clear record.

Methods

The project employs AI to:

• Convert dense legal and administrative language into accessible summaries.
• Surface hidden relationships across documents for public accountability.
• Assist with time management, memory, and organization for disabled creators and advocates.
• Build responsive archives that adapt to user input rather than requiring technical fluency.

Philosophy

The central principle is simple: automation should make the world more readable. AI becomes ethical when it helps a person see what was deliberately obscured — when it transforms opacity into clarity, not the other way around.

Accessibility is not a feature. It is the measure of whether technology is humane.