AI, Accessibility, and the Future of Disability Employment with Max Ivey

AI is changing how people work, communicate, publish, and access information—but for people with disabilities, the impact is more complicated.

Jason Wade speaks with blind author, accessibility advocate, and former carnival owner Max Ivey about the persistent accessibility failures across websites, apps, publishing platforms, and employment systems.

Max explains why keyboard navigation remains essential, why many disabilities remain statistically invisible, and why people often avoid disclosing disabilities because of stigma, discrimination, and loss of personal agency.

The conversation also examines how AI could create more personalized and accessible digital experiences while introducing serious privacy and trust concerns. Max argues that accessibility should not be treated only as a compliance obligation. It can improve user experience, reduce customer-support demands, strengthen recruitment, improve website structure, and help AI systems understand and recommend a business.

Topics include:

• AI tools and adaptive technology
• Keyboard-first website navigation
• Disability disclosure and masking
• Accessibility barriers in employment
• The limits of current disability statistics
• Privacy and localized accessibility
• Accessible publishing and digital platforms
• Neuroplasticity and adaptive human abilities
• Accessibility as a business advantage
• How structured websites help both users and AI systems

Max Ivey, known online as The Blind Blogger, is an author, speaker, accessibility advocate, podcast guest, and former carnival owner.

After losing his vision, Max built an online career centered on entrepreneurship, personal resilience, digital accessibility, and helping organizations understand the practical experiences of people with disabilities.

He has published multiple books and regularly speaks about accessibility, inclusion, disability employment, adaptive technology, and the importance of designing digital platforms that preserve user independence and agency.

Max approaches accessibility through both advocacy and business strategy, emphasizing that accessible systems can improve customer experience, expand markets, strengthen recruitment, and make organizations easier for search engines and AI systems to understand.

Jason Todd Wade is the founder of BackTier and NinjaAI and an AI Visibility Architect focused on how businesses, people, and organizations are discovered, classified, cited, and recommended by artificial intelligence systems.

With more than 20 years of experience across ecommerce, digital strategy, local business development, media, and emerging technology, Jason develops systems that help entities establish clearer authority across search engines, AI assistants, and machine-generated answers.

Through his podcasts and research, he explores artificial intelligence, AI visibility, accessibility, entrepreneurship, technology, and the people adapting to major changes in how information and opportunity are distributed.

Guest Bio — Max IveyHost Bio — Jason Todd Wade