Leveraging AI for Audio Description & Alt Text: Pros, Cons, and Strategy

Scheduled at 3:00 pm in Independence on Wednesday, November 19.

Speaker(s)

• Marcus Popetz, CEO/Founder, Harmonize Learning

Session Details

• Length of Session: 1-hr
• Format: Interactive/Discussion
• Expertise Level: All Levels
• Type of session: General Conference

Summary

Colleges are racing to meet new Title II media-access rules, but cost and time are real barriers. From our hands-on build of AI-assisted audio descriptions and alt text, we’ll share where AI helps, where it fails, and key questions to ask when vetting tools. A candid, behind-the-scenes guide to decide how, or if, to use AI in your accessibility strategy.

Abstract

Colleges are racing to comply with new Title II requirements for accessible web and media, yet the volume of legacy videos and images makes purely manual remediation slow and expensive. On top of that, most schools don’t have trained staff to handle audio descriptions nor do they have the professional development infrastructure to train instructors to handle this workload. That leaves us in a difficult position of not having the funding nor the time to become fully compliant.

So the question becomes: Can AI help?

Our bias: We don’t sell audio description software. Harmonize builds student and instructor interaction software (discussions, peer review, assignments, etc) that encourage and make easy the use of video and screenshare when demonstrating knowledge so we dove in to see how AI could help our customers keep their content accessible.

We will share behind the scenes pros and cons we’ve encountered along the way, talking honestly about how much trust we feel you should place in AI based solutions and answer any questions you have.

Keypoints

1. Use AI for a first pass, then human QA to meet Title II with speed and accuracy.
2. Know when AI fails: missing context, bias, complex visuals, math, and charts.
3. Evaluating AI based tools requires a large sample of videos and a discussion of human in the loop.

Disability Areas

Vision

Topic Areas

Artificial Intelligence, Assistive Technology, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Marcus Popetz

Marcus Popetz is the CEO and co-founder of Harmonize Learning, a discussion and assessment platform used by universities to support multimedia activities, peer review, and accessible course design. He leads product strategy for AI-assisted workflows—including first-pass audio descriptions and alternative text—built to help institutions meet WCAG 2.2 and Title II obligations without increasing instructor workload. Marcus works with teaching-and-learning leaders to translate compliance requirements into practical practices that scale inside the LMS while preserving academic integrity and equity.