Will AI benefit disabled people? New podcast series debates

Should Artificial Intelligence (AI) be feared or welcomed by disabled people?

This is the topic for discussion in the first episode of a new podcast series launched by Business Disability Forum (25 July).

‘Disability Today’ aims to put disabled people at the centre of the debate on key global challenges.

Leading experts will join Business Disability Forum CEO, Diane Lightfoot, to discuss how disabled people and businesses are or will be affected by issues ranging from the impact of AI, through to climate change, delivering healthcare and the impact of the cost-of-living crisis. Business Disability Forum is publishing a discussion paper to accompany each podcast episode.

Diane Lightfoot, CEO, Business Disability Forum, said:

“Disabled people are often overlooked and forgotten when considering what the future holds and the challenges the world faces. We want these podcasts to put disabled people front and centre in the challenges and the solutions when creating a more inclusive world.”

The fear around AI

In the first episode of Disability Today, ‘AI: Friend or Foe,’ Diane Lightfoot is joined by Christopher Patnoe, Head of EMEA Accessibility and Disability Inclusion at Google and Claire Cookson, CEO of Pathways Education Limited to discuss the opportunities and challenges that AI presents for disabled people.

The discussion begins by looking at the background to AI and whether our fears are valid.

Christopher Patnoe, Head of EMEA Accessibility and Disability Inclusion at Google, said:

“I think fearing something isn’t helpful, but I think being respectful of the opportunity for the future allows us to make good choices today in terms of inclusion and setting guardrails. That’s the best way for us to move forward.”

Claire Cookson, CEO of Pathways Education Limited said:

“AI is only going to be as good as the information going into it. So, we need make sure that we feed it well. We have to make sure that everybody has a voice, and everybody’s represented.”

Christopher also spoke about the importance of trust.

“AI needs to be developed at the speed of trust and that trust is what’s so important because without trust you leave people behind.” (Christopher Patnoe)

Diane Lightfoot highlighted the job roles that data may create around AI.

“A machine will teach itself from the data it’s got, but then we need human intervention to ask what’s missing. What have we not got in here? Who is not reflected in this? Who is not served by this? This could be how we begin to answer the question about what some of the new jobs will be in this space.” (Diane Lightfoot)

AI and disability

Speaking about the need to involve the disabled community, Christopher Patnoe said:

“You need to recognise that there’s a problem before you can fix it, and you need to partner with the community… If you don’t have the community telling you what’s broken, you don’t know what to fix. If you don’t recognize where the bias is, you don’t know what to address or how to address it. And you have to know what you need to fix to understand whether it’s data, whether it’s algorithms or whether you need to lean in in terms of bias and push towards something else.”  (Christopher Patnoe)

Claire Cookson highlighted the importance of education around AI.

“It’s about making sure that our education system and our AI all move at the same pace. Otherwise, people are going to miss out.” (Claire Cookson)

Diane Lightfoot called for disabled people to be part of the conversation.

“It is clear that AI needs rules, regulation, checks and balances. Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should. Conversations are already happening, but often disability is overlooked or forgotten. Disabled people need to be in the room to design out barriers from the start.” (Diane Lightfoot)

Opportunities around AI

Speaking about the opportunities AI presents for disabled people, Claire Cookson said:

“People with disabilities have learnt to use technology to be adaptive and to be ahead of the game. People are already very skilled. They’re already very savvy and are masters of workarounds and finding solutions. So, I’m hoping that people can feel very empowered and are actually going to be finally seen for their skills and for being the experts.” (Claire Cookson)

Diane Lightfoot commented on the need for everyone to gain greater understanding.

“We’ve all got a responsibility to skill ourselves up on AI and not just dismiss it….to actually understand what it means for our industries and the people that we serve. And that goes back into education.” (Diane Lightfoot)

Joining the discussion

Go to Business Disability Forum’s Disability Today page to access the podcast ‘AI: Friend or Foe’ and to download the accompanying discussion paper.

Ends

• Episode 1 of the Disability Today podcast series and the accompanying discussion paper were released on 25 July and are available at: org.uk/DisabilityTodayPodcast