EXCLUSIVE: AI doing wonders for communication – Especially for disabled people
Doug Lear, an assistive technology specialist at Northwest Ergonomics, discusses how AI is helping people with disabilities or recovering from injuries communicate, study, and work.
In the exciting world of assistive technology, the last few years have truly stood out as having the most rapidly developing solutions, and many of these are things to artificial intelligence (AI).
Transcription services, and the many ways they can improve our work life
Many users of Zoom and Microsoft Teams may not be aware that there is a transcription service available at the click of a button. Any user of these services can probably benefit from having a transcription of their meetings.
However, when it comes to the disabled people who I provide assistive technology to, these services provide so many benefits.
For those with ADHD and its related symptoms, having the transcription greatly facilitates the transition to actionable follow-up items from the meeting.
For users with a learning disability or upper extremity injuries who may have difficulty with notetaking, having the transcription can be hugely beneficial, as the contents of the meeting are easily accessible in text format. Also, the skill of the transcription engine to delineate between speakers is hugely helpful.
AI summarisation technologies take transcription to the next level
An AI advantage that has come along recently has been that there are summaries of the meetings available, and they even include things like “action items,” “due dates,” and the like.
For students with learning disabilities, AI summarisation can be hugely helpful to tackle books and articles. For those with dyslexia, ADHD, or cognitive challenges as a result of a traumatic brain injury, AI can greatly enhance the process of absorbing new material by breaking it into sections and summarisations.
While I was using Google Gemini to do research on a topic the other day, I took advantage of its Deep Research API. It offered the option to create an audio file, which was a “podcast format” of two people discussing my research with each other – including making jokes about it! What a great tool for those who may have difficulty reading and/or retaining knowledge.
Speech recognition puts great power into the voice of the user
Thanks to AI, voice assistants and language processing have greatly improved for all users. Voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri have made great improvement in recognising accents and different speech timbres. There have also been improvements in accommodating people who have speech impairments, and can only make sounds, as well.
Translation services have also vastly improved in the age of AI, and real-time transcription and translation services will only open up more possibilities for everyone. Recently, I was able to use Chat GPT to have a conversational experience with someone who only spoke Spanish, and we were both surprised at how easy it was to use and how well it worked.
There are even many apps that are promising to convert audio/written text to sign language as well, which is a great development for deaf users.
AI is improving the lives of disabled people
It feels like more has happened during the last two or three years than the previous 10 or more! While we can always do better in our mission to help those with disabilities comfortably work, live, and interact with others, AI companies are making tremendous strides in accessibility products and software.
About the author
Doug Lear is an assistive technology specialist at Northwest Ergonomics, which is located throughout Oregon, Washington, and the Pacific Northwest. Although Doug has worked for over 20 years in vocational rehabilitation, his passion lies in assistive technology. Doug enjoys working with technology, but most of all, he enjoys helping people.