Accessibility Considerations in the Development of an AI Action Plan

AI has the potential to empower everyone to become more independent and self-sufficient. The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies in everyday settings creates new opportunities to understand how disabled people might use these technologies [Glazko, 2023]. It also enables the development of new types of assistive technologies as well as new ways for people with disabilities to interact with technology in ways that are both simpler (for those who need things simpler) and more efficient and effective for those who cannot use the traditional interfaces effectively. AI has been rapidly taken up in almost all accessibility communities [Adnin 2024, Alharbi 2024, Jiang 2024, Bennett 2024, Valencia 2023]. Since becoming widely available to the public, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) has steadily gained recognition for its potential as a valuable tool in the private sector and by government, as well as a tool for accessibility. Studies of blind and visually impaired individuals have found that they use GAI to'offload' cognitively demanding tasks and obtain personal help such as fashion advice (e.g., [Xie 2024]), and to create content or retrieve information [Adnin 2024]. A study of GAI use by neurodiverse users found GAI can both support and complicate tasks like code-switching, emotional regulation, and accessing information [Glazko, 2025]. A study of people who use AAC found it helpful for text input [Valencia 2023]. However there are concerns with a technology that is often based on probability and thus tends toward the most common case rather than those at the margins.