{"id":4420,"date":"2021-05-24T15:48:54","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T20:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stratospherenetworks.com\/blog\/?p=4420"},"modified":"2021-05-25T10:32:40","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T15:32:40","slug":"artificial-intelligence-and-accessibility-how-ai-can-help-people-with-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stratospherenetworks.com\/blog\/artificial-intelligence-and-accessibility-how-ai-can-help-people-with-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial Intelligence and Accessibility: How AI Can Help People With Disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AIt can make phone calls and remember faces. It can translate for you and even drive a car. Artificial intelligence (AI)<\/a> is increasingly prevalent in our daily lives. In addition to taking over routine tasks and making life easier for all of us, this type of technology has the ability to turn the world into a more accessible place for people with disabilities and eliminate obstacles they face at home and in the workplace.<\/p>\n

In this blog series, I\u2019ve already written about the benefits of assistive technology (AT)<\/a> and the power cloud computing has<\/a> to improve access to essential services and resources for people living with disabilities. Like AT and the cloud, AI has risen to prominence as a valuable tool that we can leverage to make educational and vocational settings (among other environments) as inclusive as possible.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in adaptive technology for people with disabilities, here\u2019s an overview of how advocates, researchers, and professionals in the tech industry are working to remove barriers and create opportunities with the use of AI.<\/p>\n

Making the World More Accessible and Inclusive With AI: Key Use Cases<\/h2>\n

AI-related research began in the 1950s and focused on issues such as symbolic methods and problem-solving, according to SAS Institute<\/a>. In the decades since then, work with AI has involved neural networks, machine learning and deep learning. Today the technology is a popular and prevalent tool many of us interact with daily \u2013 e.g., by utilizing digital assistants like Siri, Cortana, Alexa and Google Assistant.<\/p>\n

As AI has evolved, it\u2019s also become the focus of efforts to promote increased accessibility. In the article \u201cAI and Accessibility<\/a>,\u201d the World Institute on Disability (WID) states that \u201cAI has already brought many remarkable tools to disability access and inclusion; what has already been achieved illuminates the promise that AI can facilitate more accessible content for people with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The WID lists the following as examples of how AI can make a positive impact:<\/p>\n