Generative UI as an Accessibility Bridge: Lessons from C2C E-Commerce

TL;DR

This paper explores how generative UI can improve web accessibility for user-generated content by providing adaptable, runtime interfaces that address static standards' limitations, based on six studies with diverse users.

Contribution

It introduces three generative UI interventions—HTML regeneration, conversational guidance, and audio-guided photo framing—that demonstrate runtime adaptability for accessibility.

Findings

Generative UI can produce adapted interfaces at use time.

Interventions improve accessibility for blind, low-vision, and older users.

Generative UI complements static standards and shifts designer roles.

Abstract

Web accessibility rests on static standards and developer compliance. That model frays in platforms where content is user-generated: photos arrive blurry or off-frame, descriptions skip size and condition, and page structure shifts from listing to listing. Drawing on six studies conducted between 2022 and 2025 with blind, low-vision, and older adult users of customer-to-customer (C2C) marketplaces, I argue that generative UI can produce adapted interfaces at the point of use, addressing barriers that static design cannot anticipate. Three interventions from this program -- HTML regeneration for screen readers, conversational guidance for older sellers, and audio-guided photo framing for blind sellers -- demonstrate how runtime generation can bridge gaps that standards leave open. I outline what these findings imply for HCI practice: generative UI extends beyond the screen, complements rather than replaces ability-based design, and shifts the designer's role from specifying layouts to specifying policies. This is an expanded arXiv version of a position paper accepted at the CHI 2026 workshop "What does Generative UI mean for HCI Practice?"