Good Accessibility, Handcuffed Creativity: AI-Generated UIs between Accessibility Guidelines and Practitioners' Expectations

Abstract

The emergence of AI-powered UI generation tools presents both opportunities and challenges for accessible design, but their ability to produce truly accessible outcomes remains underexplored. In this work, we examine the effects of different prompt strategies through an evaluation of ninety interfaces generated by two AI tools across three application domains. Our findings reveal that, while these tools consistently achieve basic accessibility compliance, they rely on homogenized design patterns, which can limit their effectiveness in addressing specialized user needs. Through interviews with eight professional designers, we examine how this standardization impacts creativity and challenges the design of inclusive UIs. Our results contribute to the growing discourse on AI-powered design with (i) empirical insights into the capabilities of AI tools for generating accessible UIs, (ii) identification of barriers in this process, and (iii) guidelines for integrating AI into design workflows in ways that support both designers' creativity and design flexibility.