My answer to this question would be initially “Yes”. Technical helpers are present in the every-day-life of a person with a disability and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already helping in many ways. Having a look at our daily companion, the smartphone, we see that many AI-supported apps are already in use even if we do not recognize them as such. Speech, pattern, or image recognition are some of the technologies used by blind and visually impaired persons or persons with a mobility constraint. Let us also consider the so-called smart canes for blind persons or smart wheelchairs for persons with reduced mobility.

Personalisation and Customisation

From applications and websites to ticket vending machines and ATMs, AI based technology can adapt interfaces to the needs of the person sitting or standing in front of a screen. These adjustments can result as reactions to environmental influences such as low light or sunshine on a screen. But what if a machine could recognize if someone is blind? An interface could then switch into a speech or a text based mode applying different contrast and size of elements on the screen. In that way, an AI based system could learn how to adapt and better present the content of applications in a personalised manner. This would not only affect persons with learning or cognitive problems, but also a growing part of our aging society. In 2030 nearly 25 % of the population in Europe will be older than 60 years.

But do users really know which kind of assistive technology they need?

This time the answer is “No”:  Sometimes Machine Learning presents an inherent bias that is often transposed from the past to the present. Such bias could lead to an unexpected discrimination because of disability, but also because of gender, age, migration background and so forth. As the concept of disability is not based on a small number of possible values, and the dimensions in intensity and impact do change often over time, it cannot be reflected into a simple checklist to tick off.

Automated customisation may help a blind person to adapt the system according to his or her needs, but the system then will know that there is a blind person in front of it. This may lead to unwanted consequences i.e. scoring the person negatively or providing data to another application that could lead to negative consequences for this certain person, i.e. in a job application process.

To follow the approach of the European Disability Forum, cited on our position paper we have to ask the following questions during the process of designing AI systems:

• Is the system equitable in use?
• Is the system flexible in use?
• Is it simple and intuitive to use the system?
• Is the information on the system perceivable, including for users of assistive technologies?
• Does the system arrange elements to minimize hazards and errors?
• Does the system allow for perceived errors to be corrected with ease?
• Does the system accommodate a wide range of individual preferences and abilities, including persons with disabilities?
• Does the system user interface follow the relevant accessibility requirements and standards and how is it verified?
• What definition(s) of fairness is (are) applicable in the context of the system being developed and/or deployed?
• For each measure of fairness applicable, how is it measured and assured?
• Were persons with disabilities involved in the conceptualisation, development, testing, and implementation and monitoring as regards to the AI system?”

As AI is now present in our daily lives and is expected to develop faster and faster within the next years, efforts should focus on finding a balanced way between possible improvements and the use of regulation to avoid possible misuse i.e. of data, which leads us to the GDPR.

In my personal opinion, AI in general could bring major improvements for the independent living of persons with disabilities in all parts of the world, not only in the industrialized countries, but in all parts of the world. This is however a question for another blogpost.

Let us now focus on the opportunities, but also the obstacles we have in our way of putting human, with all his diversity, at the centre.