Over the years, accessibility at CES has shown up in pockets—powerful assistive‑tech demos, a few standout panels, and a growing presence from disability advocates and innovators. This year, accessibility has a defined track and a dedicated stage, putting it alongside AI, mobility, and digital health instead of keeping it in the margins.
That backdrop makes one upcoming session especially meaningful: “Voices of Accessibility: A C‑Suite View on Progress & Innovation,” which will be moderated by my colleague, Lauren Sallata, Chief Growth Officer at JAKALA North America and a member of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) board. Lauren isn’t just joining the discussion—she's convening a panel of high‑profile executives from major enterprises to explore how their companies are turning accessibility into progress and innovation at scale.
I’ve known Lauren since her Panasonic days, and now see her up close in her CGO role at JAKALA, where she helps shape how we position and deliver our SEO to GEO point of view in the market. That shift, from optimizing for search engines to driving growth through orchestrated experiences, is directly tied to accessibility and AI:
- AI is changing discovery and interaction. As search moves toward AI-shaped answers, conversational interfaces, and location-aware results, accessibility stops being a page-by-page checklist and becomes a structural requirement across content, journeys, and local touchpoints.
- SEO to GEO turns accessibility into performance. AI and modern search can put your brand in front of more people in more moments, but that visibility only becomes growth if the experience works for them when they arrive. If a form can’t be completed with a keyboard, a page can’t be navigated with a screen reader, or a mobile flow breaks, you lose the conversion and the revenue. Accessibility reduces friction at scale, which is why it functions as a growth lever, not just compliance.
- AI can either widen or close the gap. Poorly designed AI experiences can introduce new barriers for people with disabilities, while well-designed AI can reduce cognitive load, improve wayfinding, and provide the right assistance at the right time.
From a solutions and consulting standpoint, these are not theoretical issues. Organizations that combine a mature SEO to GEO strategy with clear accessibility priorities tend to ask different questions:
- How do our AI and GEO‑driven experiences behave for screen‑reader users, keyboard‑only navigation, or those relying on captions and transcripts?
- Are our local and in‑journey experiences (store locators, booking flows, wayfinding, kiosks) designed to be inclusive, or are we optimizing only for a “typical” user?
- Do our measurement frameworks treat accessible, error‑free journeys as a leading indicator of growth, not just a compliance metric?
Lauren’s mission‑driven work, including Her Lead Story and other initiatives that elevate underrepresented voices, adds another dimension. She consistently uses her platform to bring missing perspectives into the room—precisely what is needed when AI systems and GEO‑driven experiences risk encoding existing biases and exclusions.
Her tenure on the CTA board gives her a system‑level view of how industry priorities are set and how CES can be used to move the ecosystem forward. When someone who helps shape CTA’s agenda and helps steer Jakala’s SEO to GEO vision is convening a C‑suite panel on accessibility, it signals a more integrated approach: accessibility, AI, and growth strategy considered together, rather than as parallel tracks.
Looking ahead to the panel and beyond, the most useful outcomes may come from the questions leaders are willing to sit with:
- Where does accessibility show up in our AI roadmap and our GEO‑driven experience design?
- How do we make sure our SEO to GEO strategies don’t just reach more people, but work better for more people?
- In what ways could accessible, AI‑enhanced experiences become a structural advantage over competitors who treat accessibility as an afterthought?
For organizations willing to ask and act on those questions, accessibility is likely to become a quiet but decisive differentiator in the next wave of AI‑driven, GEO‑aware growth.
Photo: Looking for a signal, Arch Rock, Joshua Tree
