Beyond Alt Texts: How AI can Help Solve the "Cognitive Gap" in Modern UX
Last year during Google's Built-In AI hackathon, I built an experimental Chrome extension called Clarity Lens. The product was inspired by thinking about the 'hidden 16%', the portion of the world's population who are often left behind by the modern web. According to the WHO, over 1 in 6 people live with a disability, many of whom navigate the web with cognitive differences that the rest of us simply glance over. For these users, the modern web is a high-friction environment that demands a lot of "cognitive energy" just to do simple tasks. As someone who has always cared about building usable products and experiences, I know that the standard experience often fails these users.
The Cognitive Friction of the Modern Web
I did some research and tried to better understand the major barriers these users face. The common observation was these:
ADHD and Sensory Overload: For users with ADHD, using a typical website might feel like trying to read when 3 people are shouting 3 different things at you. Auto-playing videos, promo and consent popups, and cluttered layouts create a kind of 'noise' that makes it nearly impossible to focus.
Dyslexia and Visual Stress: Users with dyslexia often describe large blocks of text as 'swimming' in their faces or blurry. Long sentences with complex words make it really hard to retain the meaning of the sentence by the time they reach the end.
An Experimental Solution
I built this product to explore how AI could be beneficial in making the web more accessible, in ways we might have never thought of. It acts as a bridge, reducing cognitive stress by simplifying language and reducing digital clutter. Because this is a Chrome Extension built on Chrome’s built-in AI, the processing happens directly on the user's device. This project focused on two main functions:
Simplification: Rewriting complex jargon into plain, accessible language.
Action Item Extraction: Surfacing "Action Items" (like deadlines or very important information) so users don’t have to hunt through 1,000 words of copy to find them.
Solving the "Privacy Tax"
Building this project helped me see a much bigger picture regarding AI and ethics. For a user with a cognitive disability, using most AI tools would mean that they have no privacy anymore to even do something as basic as using the web because they often have to expose their private browsing data just to make a website readable. By building Clarity Lens as an extension using local, built-in AI; this privacy tax is eliminated because their data never leaves their browser.
This project showed that we can build AI-enabled products that are both deeply accessible and private by design, ensuring the web remains a place where everyone can navigate with dignity and ease.
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Hi, I'm Mary, i'm a design engineer, who designs and builds products
