Accessibility is more than a mandate. It’s the first step toward inclusive innovation.

SHI International Corp. has partnered with Kamiwaza Corp., Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Nvidia Corp. to help government agencies meet Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 standard. Under 508, agencies must ensure their online services are accessible to all citizens, creating digital spaces that support equity by design.

SHI’s Denise Collison talks with theCUBE about the intricacies of 508 compliance.

“Depending on the size of the agency, there can be millions of pages,” said Denise Collison (pictured), senior vice president of public sector sales at SHI. “So the issue can be very cost-prohibitive, time-prohibitive to go back and actually get every single page up to compliance standards. Staying compliant is also an issue because anytime any changes to those pages are made, the agency then has to go and make sure those changes are also compliant.”

Collison spoke with theCUBE’s Paul Gillin at the SHI Fall Summit, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed SHI’s joint automation solution with HPE, Nvidia and Kamiwaza, and how AI can save time on accessibility services. (* Disclosure below.)

Automation for accessibility

The majority of government agencies need to be compliant by January of 2026, creating a time crunch. SHI’s joint offering with Kamiwaza automates accessibility services, such as colored contrast and alternative text for the seeing-impaired, and uses AI to determine where websites are falling short, according to Collison.

“There’s a visual AI component,” Collison said. “This is where the Kamiwaza application comes in. The visual AI component can actually go out and sort of as a human user would do, interact with the web pages, take the images [and] actually put the descriptions down in a systematic, concise and organized approach. Then, it delivers all of that back to the government agency who then just has to take that final image that’s already compliant and upload it to the site.”

The solution is bundled with HPE and Nvidia hardware, and can be installed in either the cloud or on-premises. The remediation, according to Collison, is immediate and could save years of manual labor. She describes 508 automation as a “wedge AI solution” that could get the government on board with other AI applications.

“Everyone sees the [return on investment], the impact and how easy it is to use,” she said. “Then, you build your next use case and your next use case from there. The great thing about this solution is it’s fully scalable. So you don’t need to then replace or buy all new architecture to start the next use case. You can just build on what you already have.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the SHI Fall Summit:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the “AI Integration and Cybersecurity Strategies for IT Leaders” event. Neither Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE