Written by Catherine Miller, Director of the European Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Society Fund.
Shaping AI with the Disability Rights Community
The European AI & Society Fund is delighted to support the European Disability Forum’s (EDF) work on Artificial Intelligence, and we are excited to see the disability rights community engaging wholeheartedly in shaping this technology. The community’s motto of ‘nothing about us, without us’ is an apt rallying cry for ensuring that AI is built, used and regulated in ways that serve people and society.
Transformative Impact of Co-Creation in Assistive Technologies
EDF has rightly recognised that assistive technologies can have a potentially transformative impact on disabled people’s lives – but only if they are co-created along with the people who will use them. Too often, technologies are built around lazy and ableist assumptions about disabled people, making them irrelevant to people’s lives or even harmful. And unless accessibility is built into all technologies, the more than 100 million people that EDF represents are being shut out from sharing the benefits that innovation might bring.
Overcoming Assumptions and Promoting Inclusive Legislation
The European AI & Society Fund exists to promote a diverse and resilient civil society ecosystem that can shape AI in the public interest. Organisations like EDF are a crucial part of this ecosystem. They make sure the voices of those who use and are affected by technology are heard loud and clear at a critical time when new regulations are being drafted that will shape the future of AI in Europe. Working together with colleagues from digital rights and social justice organisations, we’ve seen how EDF has had a tangible impact on making these new laws better. We hope the community that is growing around this work will be able to exercise their rights under future legislation and make the promise of disability-inclusive AI a reality.