Source-linked AI summary
AI and Accessibility: A Discussion of Ethical Considerations
Meredith Ringel Morris
TL;DR
AI could remove access barriers for people with disabilities, yet systems may exclude them and raise distinct ethical concerns. The column discusses these concerns and concludes they are especially nuanced given AI’s potential benefits and risks for disabled users.
Problem
AI systems trained on data that excludes disabled users may be less effective for them, limiting access to emerging technologies.
Source: p. 1Method
The column discusses ethical considerations including inclusivity, bias, privacy, error, expectation setting, simulated data, and social acceptability.
Source: p. 3Results
These ethical considerations apply to all users but are particularly nuanced and salient for AI systems serving people with disabilities.
Source: p. 3Takeaways & Limitations
Computer science ethics curricula should include disability studies and inclusive design, while institutions and workplaces should increase representation of people with disabilities.
Source: p. 3
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
According to the World Health Organization, more than one billion people worldwide have disabilities. The field of disability studies defines disability through a social lens; people are disabled to the extent that society creates accessibility barriers. AI technologies offer the possibility of removing many accessibility barriers; for example, computer vision might help people who are blind better sense the visual world, speech recognition and translation technologies might offer real time captioning for people who are hard of hearing, and new robotic systems might augment the capabilities of people with limited mobility. Considering the needs of users with disabilities can help technologists identify high-impact challenges whose solutions can advance the state of AI for all users; however, ethical challenges such as inclusivity, bias, privacy, error, expectation setting, simulated data, and social acceptability must be considered.