Using AI to build wordPress sites shows How AI makes web work more accessible
Umar Shakir reported for The Verge earlier this month about WordPress.com launching an AI-powered site builder in “early access.” According to Shakir, the new tool is able to “construct your WordPress webpage, including fully written text, layout, generated images, and more,” with WordPress itself boasting the new software can “make beautiful, functional websites in minutes.” Shakir caveats the AI site builder can neither create e-commerce sites nor those with “complex integrations.” But fear not: according to WordPress, the AI site builder will see these jobs come to them over time.
“It takes your input and instantly creates a fully designed, content-ready WordPress website, complete with text, layouts, and images, for you,” WordPress says of its AI-powered site builder software. “Just you and your vision, with AI handling the rest.”
WordPress posted a video demonstrating the site builder to YouTube.
WordPress’ new site builder is notable from an accessibility standpoint in that it shines more light on the notion that artificial intelligence has profound potential to do genuine good for people. A person with disabilities who may have fine-motor delays, for instance, that limits their use of a mouse and keyboard very well could find the WordPress site builder a more accessible avenue to build their website(s). Instead of clicking-and-dragging elements around (like in Squarespace, for example) and/or writing a lot of HTML/CSS code, they instead can type out a few sentences with prompts for what they want to AI to do for them. Likewise, it’s highly plausible building a website goes beyond the ken of someone with certain cognitive conditions, as there’s a good degree of complexity in what-you-see-is-what-you-get tools such as the aforementioned Squarespace. That someone with intellectual disabilities harnesses AI in this manner isn’t a “cheat code” or lazy; on the contrary, it shows how AI can be a true assistive technology for those who need the help. Like with chatbots in ChatGPT or Gemini helping do research for school essays, to use AI for, in this case, building websites, should be applauded and recognized for its shrewdness rather than lament its laziness. The salient point is not everyone can create websites—or do research—in the traditional ways, no matter how tried-and-true they may be for the mainstream.
Although Curb Cuts (and my portfolio page) are built atop Squarespace, my old blog was hosted on WordPress—first the dot-com, then the self-hosted version. The reason I moved to Squarespace was (a) I have friends whose podcasts have them as a sponsor; and (b) I grew tired of self-hosting and wanted something easy yet equally robust and nice-looking. Squarespace checks those boxes for me, as it’s easy to click-and-drag elements and customize things, yet flexible enough to indulge my nerdy side and allow me to pop open the proverbial hood and tinker with code-level changes. In fact, I did this just recently to Curb Cuts regarding CSS customization. What’s more, I ran into a couple situations where I needed answers to questions; rather than comb Google for umpteenth GitHub and Reddit threads, I asked Gemini to provide me with some code, which I copy-and-pasted into my CMS. Not only did I add some cool bits of branding to the site, but I did it accessibly with help from my newly-preferred generative AI chatbot.
