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HumanFirst - Web Accessibility Intelligence

Problem Statement

Despite decades of accessibility guidelines, most websites remain hostile to users with disabilities, seniors, and those with cognitive differences. Developers lack real-time feedback about how their design choices exclude people. The "Websites Are for Humans" philosophy exists, but there's no automated way to measure and improve human-centeredness vs. metrics-optimization during development. Millions of people struggle daily with inaccessible interfaces, but building accessible sites remains an afterthought rather than a real-time development priority.

App Concept

HumanFirst is an AI-powered browser extension and API that provides real-time accessibility scoring, simulation, and actionable fixes while you design and develop websites.

  • Live accessibility scoring as you browse or develop (0-100 human-friendliness score)
  • Multi-disability simulation - See your site through 15+ different lenses (low vision, motor impairment, cognitive differences, elderly users)
  • AI fix suggestions with code snippets for immediate implementation
  • Screen reader preview - Hear what blind users experience
  • Cognitive load analyzer - Detect overwhelming layouts, choice paralysis
  • Plain language AI - Rewrites complex text at target reading levels
  • Mobile motor difficulty simulation - Shows how hard tap targets are to hit
  • Neurodivergent mode - Flags sensory overload triggers (animations, colors, density)
  • Accessibility debt tracker for development teams
  • Comparison reports - How you rank vs. competitors on human-centeredness

Core Mechanism

For developers: 1. Install browser extension or add NPM package to dev environment 2. Real-time scoring overlay appears on dev site (like Lighthouse but for humans) 3. Click any failing element to see specific issue + AI-generated fix 4. Copy code fix with one click 5. Watch score improve in real-time as you implement changes 6. Generate accessibility report for stakeholders with ROI data

For advocates/consumers: 1. Browse web normally with extension enabled 2. See accessibility scores on every site (public shaming/praising mechanism) 3. One-click "Report inaccessible site" to database 4. Track improvement over time across favorite sites 5. Share accessible alternatives to common sites 6. Build advocacy campaigns with data from network

For business stakeholders: 1. Dashboard showing accessibility debt across all company properties 2. ROI calculator - lost revenue from excluded users 3. Legal risk assessment based on WCAG compliance 4. Competitive intelligence - how accessible are competitors? 5. Before/after impact reports with user testimonials

Core Mechanism (Continued)

Viral growth loop: 1. Developer improves site accessibility using tool 2. Users with disabilities notice and leave positive feedback 3. Site displays "Built with HumanFirst" badge 4. Other developers see badge and want same validation 5. Accessibility scores become competitive metric 6. Sites with low scores face public pressure to improve

Gamification: - Accessibility leaderboards by industry/category - Achievement badges for hitting milestones - Team competitions to improve scores fastest - "Accessibility champion" certifications - Monthly spotlight on most-improved sites

Monetization Strategy

Freemium for individuals: - Free: Basic scoring, 3 simulations, community database access - Pro ($12/month): All 15 simulations, AI fixes, plain language rewriter, no limits

Team/Enterprise: - Startup ($49/month): 5 team members, unlimited sites, Slack integration - Business ($199/month): 20 members, API access, custom rules, white-label reports - Enterprise ($999+/month): Unlimited users, dedicated support, legal compliance packages, custom training

Additional revenue: - Accessibility audit services ($2,500-25,000 per site) - Certification program for developers ($299/year) - Agency partnerships (white-label tool) - 30% revenue share - Consulting for major redesigns - Expert witness services for ADA lawsuits

Viral Growth Angle

Public accountability: Browser extension shows accessibility scores on every site you visit - creates social pressure. "How does your site score?" becomes a benchmark question.

Legal fear + hope: Partner with disability rights organizations. When major ADA lawsuits hit (ongoing), position as prevention tool. "Don't be the next Netflix/Domino's."

Developer community: Open-source the scoring algorithm. Create GitHub action that blocks deploys with scores below threshold. Becomes industry standard.

Influencer partnerships: Work with accessibility advocates like Haben Girma to evangelize. Their communities become early adopters and vocal supporters.

Media moments: Publish quarterly "most/least accessible" reports by industry. Companies compete for positive recognition.

Existing Projects

Similar solutions: - axe DevTools (Deque) - Browser extension for accessibility testing. Focuses on WCAG compliance checklist rather than holistic human-centered design. No AI fixes or simulation features. Enterprise pricing ($1000s). - WAVE (WebAIM) - Free browser extension showing accessibility errors. Basic visual indicators only, no simulations or intelligent suggestions. No real-time development integration. - Lighthouse (Google) - Includes accessibility audit in performance tool. Generic scores without specific human experience simulation. Developer-focused only. - Stark - Figma/Sketch plugin for designers. Limited to design phase, doesn't work on live sites. No code-level integration or AI suggestions. - Silktide - Enterprise accessibility monitoring platform. Expensive ($10K+/year), complex setup, not real-time during development.

Key differentiator: HumanFirst combines real-time scoring during development, multi-disability simulation, AI-powered fix generation, and public-facing scoring in one tool - making accessibility improvement fast, intuitive, and socially visible rather than a compliance checkbox.

Evaluation Criteria

  • Emotional Trigger: 8/10 - Strong among those who care about inclusion, elderly parents, or have disabilities; moderate for typical developers until they understand impact
  • Idea Quality: 8/10 - Addresses real pain point with novel AI approach and public accountability mechanism
  • Need Category: Safety & Security Needs (protection, predictability, ability to access essential services)
  • Market Size: Large - 20M+ web developers worldwide, plus 1B+ people with disabilities, plus all businesses with websites
  • Build Complexity: 7/10 - Requires AI model training, browser extension development, accessibility expertise, simulation engines
  • Time to MVP: 3 months - Core: browser extension with basic scoring, 5 key simulations, simple fix suggestions
  • Key Differentiator: Only tool combining real-time dev feedback, multi-disability simulation, AI fixes, and public-facing scores with social pressure mechanism
  • Inspiration Source: "Websites Are for Humans" HN article + widespread accessibility failures despite existing guidelines

Human Protocol Translator: Communication Style Decoder

"Does this email sound passive-aggressive?" "What do they really mean by 'let me think about it'?" Human communication is full of hidden protocols—cultural norms, emotional subtext, power dynamics—that many people struggle to decode. This app translates between communication styles and reveals hidden meanings, helping you understand what people really mean and craft messages that land the way you intend.

KnowledgeArchaeology - Forgotten Standards Revival

Problem Statement

Valuable technical knowledge gets buried and forgotten as technologies evolve. RFCs, old documentation, archived forums, and deprecated guides contain insights that remain relevant but are inaccessible to modern developers. When someone asks "why does HTTP work this way?" or "what were the design tradeoffs?", the answers exist in forgotten documents nobody reads. Newer developers lack historical context, repeat past mistakes, and miss elegant solutions because institutional knowledge disappears. We need a system that excavates, contextualizes, and resurfaces forgotten technical wisdom.

App Concept

KnowledgeArchaeology is an AI-powered platform that mines forgotten technical documentation (RFCs, old specs, archived blogs, deprecated docs) and makes historical knowledge searchable, relevant, and actionable for modern developers.

  • Deep web crawler for RFCs, W3C specs, IETF docs, Internet Archive, old forums
  • AI contextualizer that explains historical decisions in modern terms
  • "Why does X work this way?" search engine for technical curiosities
  • Timeline visualizer showing how a technology evolved over decades
  • Modern translation - Converts old documentation into current language/frameworks
  • Design tradeoff database - Captures the "why not" reasons behind historical choices
  • Wisdom extraction - AI identifies timeless principles vs. dated implementation details
  • Comparison engine - "How would we build this today vs. 1995?"
  • Academic integration - Links research papers to their practical implementation
  • Expert annotation - Community adds context to historical documents

Core Mechanism

For developers: 1. Search technical question: "Why does DNS use UDP?" 2. AI surfaces relevant RFCs with key passages highlighted 3. Get explanation in modern terminology with diagrams 4. See decision timeline: original constraints → evolution → current state 5. Compare to modern alternatives with tradeoffs 6. Save to personal knowledge garden 7. Share "TIL" moments to social feeds

Knowledge ingestion loop: 1. AI continuously crawls historical technical resources 2. Extracts principles, decisions, tradeoffs, debates 3. Links related documents across time periods 4. Identifies patterns in how technologies evolve 5. Flags when modern devs are repeating historical mistakes 6. Suggests reading when you encounter similar problems

Community enhancement: 1. Experts can annotate historical docs with modern context 2. Users vote on most insightful archaeological finds 3. "Forgotten wisdom" feed shows daily excavated knowledge 4. Challenge mode: guess which modern problem was solved in 1983 5. Contribution score for adding context to old docs

Educational features: - Guided journeys: "History of encryption in 10 documents" - Before/after: Original design doc → What actually shipped - Counterfactual explorer: "What if we'd chosen the other approach?" - Debate archives: Preserved mailing list arguments that shaped tech

Monetization Strategy

Freemium for individuals: - Free: 20 searches/month, basic historical docs access, modern translation - Pro ($9/month): Unlimited search, AI summaries, timeline visualizations, save unlimited docs - Scholar ($19/month): Academic paper integration, export capabilities, custom knowledge gardens

Team/Education: - Startup ($49/month): 5 team members, shared knowledge base, onboarding docs generated from historical context - Enterprise ($299/month): Unlimited users, private docs integration (your old internal specs), custom AI training, API access - University ($999/year): Site license for CS/Engineering departments, curriculum integration

Additional revenue: - Technical book/course creators ($99/month): Research tool for finding historical context - Consulting services ($5,000-25,000): Deep dives into "archaeology" of client's legacy systems - Expert marketplace: Historical experts get paid to annotate important documents ($50-500/doc) - API licensing: Other developer tools integrate historical context ($0.01/query)

Affiliate/partnership: - Partner with O'Reilly, Manning for book recommendations based on historical learning paths - Sponsor historical tech conferences/podcasts

Viral Growth Angle

"TIL moment" sharing: Every time someone discovers amazing forgotten wisdom (e.g., "TCP's design in 1981 predicted problems we're solving today"), they share to Twitter/LinkedIn. Curiosity drives clicks.

Developer education: Become essential tool for technical interviewing prep - "Understand the 'why' not just the 'how'" positioning. Bootcamps and CS programs adopt.

Nostalgia + respect: Older developers feel valued when their era's work is excavated and appreciated. They become evangelists and contributors.

Content marketing: Weekly blog "Forgotten tech wisdom" series goes viral on HN/Reddit. Each post is free marketing.

Integration with AI coding tools: Partner with Cursor, Copilot, etc. When AI suggests code, link to historical context of why pattern exists. "Powered by KnowledgeArchaeology" attribution.

Open source strategy: Open the core dataset. Let community build on it. Monetize the AI layer and UX.

Existing Projects

Similar solutions: - Internet Archive / Wayback Machine - Preserves web pages but doesn't make content searchable, contextualizable, or relevant to modern problems. Manual browsing only. - RFC Editor - Official repository of RFCs but raw documents without modern translation, visual timelines, or AI-powered relevance matching. - DevDocs.io - Aggregates current documentation. Doesn't include historical context, deprecated specs, or evolutionary understanding. - Papers We Love - Community repository of academic CS papers. Focused on papers, not specs/RFCs/forums. No AI contextualization or search. - Docs.rs / ReadTheDocs - Current documentation hosting. No historical preservation or evolution tracking.

Key differentiator: KnowledgeArchaeology uniquely combines automated excavation of forgotten technical knowledge with AI-powered modern translation, evolutionary timelines, and design tradeoff extraction - specifically making historical context actionable for current development rather than just archiving or documenting.

Evaluation Criteria

  • Emotional Trigger: 6/10 - Strong among curious developers and technical historians; lower among pragmatic "just ship it" developers until they hit a wall
  • Idea Quality: 7/10 - Solves real knowledge-loss problem with novel AI approach, but market education required
  • Need Category: Self-Actualization Needs (knowledge, mastery, understanding deeper principles, intellectual fulfillment)
  • Market Size: Medium-Large - 25M+ developers worldwide who value deep understanding; CS students; technical writers; system architects
  • Build Complexity: 8/10 - Requires sophisticated crawling, NLP for document understanding, knowledge graph, timeline visualization, AI translation layer
  • Time to MVP: 4-5 months - Core: Crawl top 500 RFCs + key W3C specs, basic search, AI summarization, simple timeline view
  • Key Differentiator: Only platform using AI to make historical technical knowledge searchable, contextual, and relevant to modern development problems - not just archiving
  • Inspiration Source: "What Are RFCs?" HN article + recurring pattern of developers asking "why does X work this way?" without accessible answers

Skill Deobfuscator: Hidden Talent Extractor

You've developed real skills through hobbies, volunteering, side projects, and life experiences—but you don't know how to describe them in terms employers or clients value. Like deobfuscating minified code to reveal its true function, this app analyzes your activities and extracts the hidden professional skills, then translates them into the language of job descriptions, resumes, and portfolios.

Code Conscience: AI Code Review Safety Net

As developers increasingly use Copilot and AI code generators, there's growing anxiety about becoming "rubber stamps" who blindly approve machine code (HN today). Developers need to maintain their professional identity, reputation, and actual skill while leveraging AI productivity gains.