Dr. Arielle Silverman

Director of Research, The American Foundation for the Blind

“For over 100 years, The American Foundation for the Blind has advocated for people who are blind or have low vision, as well as for increased accessibility and opportunities for people with disabilities. We are a Ford grantee and we have our own public policy and research institute, with some of our work examining how technology and artificial intelligence (AI) affect the broader disability community.

Our new report, Empowering or Excluding: New Research and Principles for Inclusive AI, looks at how strongly 32 experts agree with different ideas about AI and disability, using a scale of 1 to 7. A notable finding: The idea that hiring processes need a human to be involved got a 6.76 out of 7, meaning they really strongly believe that when AI is being used to screen job candidates, it’s critical that a person checks what the AI is measuring. There are serious concerns that algorithms could—and probably already are—treating candidates with disabilities in biased ways. Discrimination in AI-assisted hiring processes can take many forms: A resume screener might exclude candidates with employment gaps when those candidates were receiving medical treatment, or an automated interview might be rejected because the applicant can’t make eye contact with a camera.

It’s extremely useful to be able to take our findings into meetings and trainings with tech companies, because the best time to think about accessibility is before a system is created. We are also creating a survey for people with disabilities to share their experiences with AI to get a better sense of whether there are accessibility challenges or biases, and to see if people with disabilities use AI differently. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is much higher than for people without disabilities, and we cannot afford to leave them behind. There is an opportunity to make AI work for everyone.”

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