For disability pride, think I want to focus on this one thing that been bothering me
Been very frustrated lately by lack of phone call accessibility as someone who lacks speech but needs a lot of resources to stay healthy.
With rise of AI, it's only getting worse and worse.
More places changing their systems to incorporate AI answering machines.
Whenever I hear most people ranting about this change, it's usually about how annoying it is from an abled-person perspective or environmental or ethical impact.
Which are important valid reasons to be upset. I share those sentiments too.
But feel like disability is once again forgotten about within important discussion about change.
AI creates terrible language accessibility issues.
In fact, that's why it so annoying to deal with it.
In the past, if a place didn't have a call center or desk person to answer calls, they use extentions.
That meant you had to press a few numbers to get the right person.
Now with AI, you're expected to have a full conversation with a robot.
Tell them why you're calling, who you need to speak to, verify your info so the humans don't have to later, etc.
These bots can be bad at understanding what able-people are saying, so imagine how they handle these disabled callers:
People who use AAC (speech aids/devices)
People who slur, stutter, have "strange" voice or pronunciation
People with rapid or disorganized speech
People who use poor grammar & who don't speak full words or sentences
People who mix up similar common words
People with "deaf accent"
(i don't know if there is a different preferred term for this. Im sorry if I sound offensive. Please Lmk)
People with non-communicative speech such as vocal tics, echolalia, or babbling
Anyone who uses speech or language in a way that needs a human mind to interpret
Anyone whose voice sounds notably different
Ability to understand what AI is saying can be harder too:
d/Deaf people and other hearing differences
Auditory processing disorder
Receptive language disorder
Developmental disability, especially intellectual and learning disabilities
(AI can't help people who need things explained a certain way. AI unreliable and fails to adapt a lot.)
Anyone who frequently can't make out sounds and/or speech
Anyone who frequently has trouble with meanings in conversation
The problems I often face with AI answering machines (and that I'm sure many other disabled people have faced as well):
AI slightly mishearing me/my device
AI mishearing so badly that it basically makes up a fake conversation
AI not hearing me/my device at all
AI registering tics and stims as answers
AI "explaining" an instruction by repeating the same instruction again word-for-word
AI directing me to the wrong person without trying to confirm what I said
AI sometimes just... hanging up on me right after I speak my first answer...
These are the machines being put in front of
transportation and in-home care
health insurance member services
government resource agencies
justice centers & other legal resources
many other places disabled people often need to access from home
It's another example of some of the most vulnerable being pushed away from the things we need, and we're also being forgotten in these discussions about things that can affect us a lot
Next time someone is ranting about AI job interviewers, please also remember:
the AI pharmacy assistants that make it impossible for someone with a speech disorder to sort out their meds
the AI scheduler that won't allow a D/deaf person to access the right extension of the clinic to set up an appointment
the AI agent that confuses an intellectually disabled person into anger and tears
the AI answerer that hangs up on a mentally ill person seeking help in crisis because they aren't speaking coherently enough
Human beings need to be at the forefront of human resources and issues for disabled people especially. Please remember us. Please fight.
