Artificial intelligence technologies have the potential to improve the quality of life for marginalized populations, including people with disabilities. However, a majority of these AI solutions are designed for people in the Global North and so far, have marginalized the needs of people with disabilities in the Global South. Yet, the increased proliferation of AI across the world suggests that this trend will change.
However, the living conditions of people with disabilities in the Global South are very different from those in Global North. The estimated 800 million people with disabilities living in the developing world or the Global South face several structural barriers that impede their social and economic inclusion, including contexts often marked by poverty, limited resource availability, lack of accessible support structures and indifferent societal attitudes towards people with disabilities.
4 Insights on Designing Assistive AI Solutions
This prompts the question: What are key considerations for the design for AI solutions that center the needs of people with disabilities in the Global South? Interviewing people with visual impairments in India for AI for Accessibility: An Agenda for the Global South revealed he following insights:
1. Culture underlines technological expectations
People with visual impairments expected and sought assistance from others to navigate indoor environments. Societies in India, like in much of the Global South, are community-driven and value interdependence. Study participants wanted future AI technologies to help them identify people who could help them navigate indoor environments.
Women participant experiences in particular were reflective of gender dynamics inherent in Indian society. Women only preferred seeking assistance from other women and here, expected AI technologies to assist them with identifying the right person to help. Additionally, when navigating with people who were not of the same gender, women desired technologies to help them avoid physical contact with their guide.
2. Infrastructural constraints shape experiences
Structural inaccessibility was rampant in the Indian context. Indoor environments were crowded, cramped, lacked architectural standards, and had no accessibility support.
This is reflective of infrastructures in broader Global South contexts where the provision of accessible infrastructures is complicated by resource constraints and historical legacies. Indeed, this lack of structural support was a key reason why people sought help; they viewed help as a way to circumvent the challenges posed by indoor environments.
This structural inaccessibility is not limited to indoor environments and as highlighted previously, is a common feature of Global South contexts.
3. Socio-economic realities dictate technology access
A majority of our participants had limited access to technology. They mostly used smartphone devices and had limited access to computer technology such as laptop machines. Prior research has highlighted how even smartphones people with visual impairments have access to in India are typically low-end Android phones with limited memory and processing capabilities and poor battery capacity.
Affordability is a major factor that dictates the choice that people make about technologies and as highlighted before, people with disabilities in the Global South are socio-economically less well off. However, given the importance of technologies to their everyday lives without which they cannot accomplish tasks on their own, smartphones often are one of their more expensive possessions.
4. Societal attitudes result in diverse technology needs
People expected technology to assist with combating indifferent societal attitudes towards disability. They did not just expect AI to help them navigate indoor environments but also wanted technologies to help them demonstrate their competence and capabilities to others.
This, to an extent, will help them fight the stigma of being disabled. Indeed, this finding too resonates with prior research which finds that people with disabilities are often viewed as dependents and feel independent when they help others including people with disabilities and non-disabled people.
A lightly edited excerpt of AI for Accessibility: An Agenda for the Global South
