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“I think AI is a really big opportunity for the world of disabilities,” says Seaver Stafford. Stafford, an Assistive Technology Technician for the Neil Squire Society, manages the AT Help Desk website and connects people with disabilities with assistive technology information. The AT website is part of the AT Help Desk program that launched in 2013. It aims to provide the most up-to-date assistive technology (AT) tools to reduce the employment gap for persons with disabilities and increase access to education. “Sometimes we’re trying to fix multiple issues and having the resources to make that happen isn’t always easy to do,” Stafford says. “I think that our knowledge of AI to provide unique solutions to people that have unique disabilities is a way that we can work around limited resources and still help.”

AI, or artificial intelligence, is the ability of a machine to perform tasks that are commonly associated with human intellectual processes. Although AI has been making headlines recently for its potentially problematic application in industries ranging from Hollywood to human resources, the technology is not new. “A vast number of applications are already using AI to do a lot of stuff. It’s working in the background or is passively functioning in pretty much every piece of assistive technology software that’s out there. Things like grammar checkers or Siri or customer service chatbots,” Stafford explains. Have you ever played a game of chess on a computer? That’s AI. Used online banking? That’s AI. Purchased something online? Browsed streaming service suggestions? These are all examples of technology powered by or informed by AI.

“When it comes to being in the foreground, I think people are just starting to discover what they can do with [AI],” Stafford says. “I think one of the best things that it can do is become a way of searching for information and delivering information to you in an accessible way.” This functionality is best encapsulated by AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft’s CoPilot.

The functionality of all of these tools is similar. Users ask a question, and the platform responds with an answer based off information pulled from multiple sources including an internal knowledge base, the internet, generative AI based on previous user answers, and testing carried out by the chatbot while in development. “Gemini, which is owned by Google, has a lot of utility for code writing and it also has a cool feature where you can upload an image and ask it questions about the image. CoPilot and ChatGPT can also do that too,” Stafford says. “Once you start looking into AI like this you’ll notice there’s a lot of similarities between them.”

From an accessibility standpoint, Gemini and CoPilot both offer built-in speech-to-text. Stafford recently learned of another AI chatbot alternative called Perplexity through a user’s comment on AT Help Desk website. Unlike the others, Perplexity shows users a list of related threads to their query and provides an in-depth list of sources for the generated answer. “That’s something these chatbots do well, is synthesize information clearly. Which is great for people who might not process things in the same way as everyone else or need a little bit more help,” Stafford says. “At Neil Squire we want people to focus on the solution and on the task, rather than what you can’t do. AI allows you to have really task oriented queries that are so specific.” For example, you could ask, ‘I’m a person with one arm and a T3 injury level, what are some ways I could drive a car?’ and it will give you an answer without you having to go to multiple sources and dig for information.

Nakia Singh has been using AI to help him navigate everyday situations with a visual impairment for almost a decade. He shares his extensive knowledge with others as an AT Researcher with Neil Squire. “I am mostly blind. I use AI extensively to gather information, see things I can’t, summarize massive documents to prevent eye strain, or handle my lights at certain times of day… If it exists then I should be able to interact with it with my voice, without ever having to touch it. That’s my motto,” Singh says. “I take things that aren’t designed to do a particular task [and develop them] to do things that will help the disabled community to avoid the ungodly prices of devices designed to help us, but financially out of reach.”

Some of Singh’s favourite AI tools include Envision AI, Live Transcribe, and Transit. Envision AI is a free visual assistance app that uses AI and machine learning to recognize visual information like text, colours, people, and more. Live Transcribe is an Android smartphone app that converts speech to text and produces live captions for the user. Transit is a real-time transportation app that gives users accurate arrival and departure times, service disruption alerts, and updated transit schedules based on live data from fellow travellers.

Stafford and Singh recently connected to discuss AI technology and trends on the AT Help Desk podcast, “We Have Solutions!”. One of the most exciting tools they explored was the Insta 360 Link, an AI-powered motion tracking webcam. This tiny camera is under 5 cm tall and only 11 cm wide and connects to any computer to track your motion in real-time. The image it captures can be shared in 4K resolution on applications such as Teams, Zoom, YouTube, Facebook Live, and more. The camera can also be paired with gestures so you can control its zoom, rotation, and advanced features from anywhere it can see you. For example, if you are having a bad pain day and don’t feel like getting out of bed to take an online meeting or video call your friend, the Insta 360 Link can pick up your motions from bed and connect you instantly. For individuals with mobility challenges, this could be a game changer.

Of course, with any new technology comes new challenges. Stafford recognizes that some people may be intimidated by AI or uncomfortable with how it works. “I’d like to encourage people not to be afraid of AI. To know what its limitations are and to think of it as another tool in the tool belt,” he says. “The cat’s out of the bag already when it comes to AI and it’s going to ramp up. A lot of it is open-source technology and when things are open source, the sky is the limit… I’m just hoping we can yield the knowledge that we have about AI and steer people in a direction where they can make some improvements in their lives without having to spend as much money or put as much effort into research. I’d be very happy if we played a role in that future.”

If you want to learn more about AI or assistive technology you can email info@neilsquire.ca or visit the AT Help Desk website at athelpdesk.org. For further information, be sure to check out the AT Help Desk podcast “We Have Solutions!” available for listening on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.