Pam McKinney here, live-blogging from the afternoon session of the second day of the ECIL conference. Daniel Ireton from Kansas State University Libraries spoke about his and his colleague Angie Brunk's reflections on the challenge of the rapid change with AI, which makes it very difficult to create guidelines and teaching, as the technology has already moved on. The US disability act is very outdated with respect to disability and the digital world. Daniel was a member of the ethics and AI sub-committee in the university to address such questions as "what is the environmental cost of AI use?"; "Can marginalised voices be heard?". Some ethical AI applications do exist, for example, live captions for presentations and meetings, improved image descriptions for visually impaired users, and AI accelerates the availability and accuracy of accessibility tools. However, there are concerns, for example, disabled users are an afterthought in AI design, and this lack of oversight increases risks for marginalised groups. There is rising backlash against disabled communities in US policy contexts, due to an over-focus on profit. Educators must be advocates for accessibility.
AI in the job recruitment process can be very unequal and contains lots of bias, this is particularly true because AI does not pick up on visual clues such as visual impairments. AI is being used to triage college applications, and this can also exacerbate inequalities. Interfaces are designed from an abelist perspective, and some screen-reading software will not work. There are questions about what data is being used to feed large language models and how this reinforces existing biases. Daniel showed some photos of disabled people that were found through AI search, and made the point that the language used to describe people is very important, and some images were not helpful.
Some AI tools are useful for people with ADHD, for example getting some text on the page as a first step to developing it further. Some tools for audio content are very helpful for people with visual impairment.
Photo: children's bikes in Bamberg (Pam McKinney)
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