Colorism

Colorism is a form of discrimination in which people are treated differently based on the shade of their skin tone, typically favoring lighter skin over darker skin within and across racial groups. In digital accessibility, colorism is relevant to image descriptions and AI systems, as automated tools may inadequately capture the diversity of skin tones, and language used to describe skin tone (such as "light" and "dark" descriptors) can reinforce colorist hierarchies. Accessibility practitioners should be aware that cameras and imaging technologies have historically been calibrated for lighter skin tones, which affects both the quality of images and the accuracy of AI-generated descriptions for people with darker skin.