Year Ender 2023: How Artificial Intelligence tech became the equaliser people with disabilities have been looking for

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence have a huge potential to transform the lives of people with disabilities. (Image creator: Wanlee Prachyapanaprai via Getty Images/iStockphoto on X)

The advent of AI has been a boon for some and a bane for others. Millions found ways to do things while a million others washed their hands off their only means of bread and butter. Now, as 2023 draws to a close, AI is one of the many things that I will be taking with me into the next year — one that took the world by storm. While it became a great resource for everyone at large, it was even more invaluable for people with disabilities.

The world's largest minority experiences insurmountable challenges in everyday life — from barriers in the built environment to the inaccessibility of digital spaces. This is where Generative AI, our friend and foe from the year 2023, can be a massively helpful resource for more than a billion people with disabilities living worldwide, excluding those who live with unrecognised disabilities. Some game-changing assistive tech startups are already working to address these challenges. Let us look at a few of them that can make the lives of people with disabilities easy and accessible:

Enabling Communication through AI-powered voice technology

Speech impairment, including slurred speech, is a reality for millions of people. Census 2011 estimates that as many as 7.45 per cent of the 2.21 per cent of the Indian disabled population lives with a speech disability. This number, however, is believed to be underreported because impaired speech may not just be a disability in itself but also a consequence of conditions like Parkinson's Disease or Multiple Sclerosis. This is where voice-assisted technology comes to one's rescue. Tech like Voiceitt helps people translate their unclear speech into clear speech in real-time.

Speech therapy, while it is extremely crucial for young children, can become too ‘medical’ for them to actually pay attention. Hence, tech companies developed video games using AI models to add a play-based approach to their products. This also provides therapists with quantifiable data to track the child's performance and modify the sessions accordingly!

Moreover, services like Ava and Google's Live Transcribe can help provide one with live captions and transcript of an audio or video,

Accessing Education through AI-powered reading tech:

People with visual disabilities often rely on Braille to read. It is a system of tactile dots that people can touch with their fingertips. But, did you know that in India, which inhabits one-third of the world's blind population, only 1 per cent of them can read Braille? This becomes critical for those who acquire blindness late in life and may not have the resources to learn Braille. Lack of Braille literacy and accessible mediums of communication can also significantly diminish one's quality of life and make them more dependent on those around them. This is where technology like Braille Tutor applications come into the picture. The recent addition to Microsoft Corporation's AI for accessibility initiative, ObjectiveEd, employs AI-driven speech recognition and gamification to enable people, including children, to learn Braille. AI-based tools like ChatGPT 4 and Claude 2 have specific plugins that can extract complex information from images and convert them into OCR-friendly outputs. OCR stands for optical character recognition and refers to a technology that converts images into electronic versions that are accessible to be read using screen readers.

Lack of awareness about sign languages is a global issue. In India, there is a stark deficit of Indian Sign Language Interpreters with only 250 ISL interpreters signing for almost 63 million Deaf people. ISL education is also not a common sight in mainstream schools which leaves most of us oblivious of a medium to communicate with Deaf people. Signapse, a startup based in the UK has tried to bridge this gap. Using AI, it creates virtual signs for audio inputs. These could be videos, audio announcements or even websites!

Greater mobility with AI

Personal experiences are often at the base of revolutionary innovation for people with disabilities. That was also how StreetCo came into being. It was only when Arthur Alba, a Parisian, had a temporary disability and was home-bound after an accident. Even when he tried to go out, potholes and hurdles that went undetected made his walk using crutches all the more exhausting. To solve the problem for one and for all, he developed a navigation app for people with a range of mobility challenges. Whether you are blind, a wheelchair user, or an elderly person, this app will help you find step-free routes and make travel accessible.

“Are wheelchairs the only solutions for people with paraplegia?” The question bugged Dr Amit Goffer. Injured in an accident in 1997, he invented ReWalk, a smart gear that could help people learn to walk again. However, its outreach was limited to those who could use their lower limbs. That birthed UPnRIDE, a smart wheelchair that transitions into a standing one and aids people with no mobility in daily life. Using that, Dr Goffer rolled out of his house standing after years! What is amazing about this invention is the artificial intelligence is trained to cater to changes in terrain, gradient, and even gravity!

Prosthetic limbs powered by smart AI models have also brought about a great deal of solace to the lives of people with disabilities. Enabling finer hand-eye coordination, these AI-driven systems are also capable of actuating and catching different neural inputs. The University of Stanford has developed an AI-based exoskeleton that conserves energy and provides its users with a more natural gait.

The future of AI is here. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence have a huge potential to transform the lives of people with disabilities. It can be an equaliser that we have been looking for, bridging the divide between people with and without disabilities. However, the question that has bugged us all along still remains: how financially viable will it be?