‘I wish [the European Accessibility Act] didn’t have to exist, but I’m glad it does,’ says Kyran O’Mahoney, founder of Nexus Inclusion.
It’s “annoying”, Kyran O’Mahoney admits, that the millions that live with disabilities have a real expectation that technology won’t work for them. “There is something fundamentally broken [in society]” that we don’t consider them.
By not providing accessible services, businesses are excluding millions from their addressable market. “It makes no financial sense not to do this”, he says.
“Ultimately you say ‘you have to do it, it’s the law’, right? If you do it, you’re going to make more sales and drive more revenue. But come on, it’s also just the bloody right thing to do.”
Accessibility audits happen, but reports are often tossed to the side by teams that don’t understand how to implement the recommended changes, O’Mahoney says, speaking to SiliconRepublic.com ahead of Nexus Inclusion’s new product launch on 25 May.
Nexus’ product launch is scheduled just days after the Global Accessibility Awareness Day today (21 May).
According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated 1.3bn people or around 16pc of the population lives with disabilities. But realistically, O’Mahoney says, it’s higher than that, if you take into account, for example, elderly people, or those with temporary disabilities.
In Ireland people living with disabilities make up around 22pc of the population, according to Employers for Change.
Meanwhile, one global survey from 2025 reported that 84pc of its respondents (comprising software developers, engineers and legal professionals) said digital accessibility is a key priority for their company. Reality, however, seems to be far different.
Statistics also suggest that 96pc of the world’s top 1m websites are not accessible to people with disabilities, and around 71pc of users with disabilities exit inaccessible websites.
The National Disability Authority finds that websites in Ireland only have an average accessibility score of around 55.2pc – all translating to loss in income for businesses.
O’Mahoney founded Nexus Inclusion in 2024 to tackle this issue, and a year after its official launch in 2025, he claims to have built a “first” in the digital accessibility space with a new AI-powered tool.
Affordability and ease of use are two factors O’Mahoney’s team focused on while building their AI tool, he says. It’s a “harsh reality” that digital accessibility is a hard thing to do. “And that’s why it gets pushed out”.
The start-up’s AI tool allows for continuous compliance detection across websites, digital products, and video and other media. The product conducts automated audits and guides users to fix any issues.
O’Mahoney says that the easy-to-use tool is designed for those who do not understand digitally accessible design. While the start-up is also tackling product pick-up by reducing prices to target small websites, all the way up to SMEs.
Nexus Inclusion raised €2m last summer, followed by an additional €1.5m towards the end of last year and early this year.
O’Mahoney says that the product was received positively following a stealth launch earlier this year. “There’s a real demand out there for people that want to be accessible”.
The start-up currently employs eight and is planning to hire around five to seven across technology, digital accessibility and sales this year.
A multi-fold problem
The fact that accessibility had to be legally mandated is a bit “annoying”, O’Mahoney tells me. “I wish [the European Accessibility Act] didn’t have to exist, but I’m glad it does.”
However, in some small parts, the digital accessibility gap is also exacerbated by a lack of awareness among people both living with and without disabilities.
“The number one thing is the people don’t know that the technology exists to support them or create that independence.”
This is where accessibility coaches play a significant role in coaxing a somewhat apprehensive community, wary of technology that largely excludes them in the making, in picking up these tools.
Companies such as Nexus Inclusion, meanwhile, are attempting to tackle the flip side of the issue by ensuring businesses, at the minimum, stay compliant with accessibility laws.
“We’re all different. We all have different things going on in our lives, whether they’re temporary or permanent, and I think it’s a much better way to look at – if we look at product design – [that] everyone is going to use it differently.”
O’Mahoney says that such issues could be better targeted in a diverse workplace, but “statistically, people with disabilities tend to be unemployed.” The disability employment rate in Ireland stands at just upwards of 32pc, nearly 20pc lower than the EU average of 51.3pc.
O’Mahoney, who was born with just 17pc vision, previously worked at Vision Ireland as its group chief technology officer. In 2021, he founded Inclusion and Accessibility Labs, an IT consulting company, which he also led as CEO.
“Advocacy around this space is growing,” he says. “Plus there’s more and more people identifying that they have somewhat of a disability now, because it’s not considered a shameful thing anymore – which I think is wonderful.”
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