AI could make such accessibility leaps more commonplace across a wide range of technologies. But you might not have heard much about that possibility. While the New York Times sued OpenAI for content scraping ChatGPT and everyone is pondering the ethics of AI tools, there doesn't seem to be much consideration given to what ChatGPT can do for people with different abilities. For people with delayed visual or motor functions, using ChatGPT to do research could be a lifesaver. Instead of managing Google searches and other related information in a dozen browser tabs, you could let ChatGPT bring it all together in one space. Similarly, it's entirely possible that an artist who can't draw in a traditional way could use voice prompts to let Midjourney or Adobe Firefly create what they envision. That might be the only way such a person can fulfill their artistic passion.
For someone like me who is blind or has low vision, being able to call a ride on demand and get anywhere without having to ask for help is a huge deal.
Of course, data must be verified for accuracy and collected with permission. There are good reasons to be wary that AI could provide false or potentially harmful ableist information about the disability community. Yet, it feels underappreciated (and underreported) how AI-based software can become true assistive technology, empowering people to do things that would otherwise have excluded them. AI can give disabled people agency and autonomy. That's the whole point of accessibility: liberating people in a society that wasn't designed for their needs.
The ability to automatically generate video captions and image descriptions is yet another example of how automation can make computers and productivity technologies more accessible. More broadly, it’s hard not to get excited about burgeoning technologies like self-driving cars. While most technology journalists and industry watchers are interested in self-driving cars purely for their novelty, the reality is that the AI software in vehicles like Waymo’s Jaguar SUVs is literally giving many in the disability community more access to transportation. For someone like me who is blind or has low vision, being able to hail a ride on demand and get anywhere without having to ask for help is huge. As the technology matures, it’s not hard to imagine a future where self-driving cars become so commonplace that blind people can buy their own cars.
