Opportunities and Challenges of AI for Accessibility - Cynthia Bennett and Shari Trewin

Accessibility NYC Meetup - February 7 2023

Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have the power to change the experience of living with a disability. For example, image analysis can generate descriptions of places and images a person can’t see, and speech recognition helps many people to communicate, learn, or control their environment.

However, bias embedded into AI systems, when unchecked, can cause harm, often to people already excluded from technology development processes. For example, when someone’s voice is not recognized, they cannot take advantage of the accessibility provided by speech recognition systems like smart speakers and dictation software. In this talk, Drs. Cynthia Bennett and Shari Trewin will go over contemporary concerns at the intersection of AI bias, accessibility, and disability, and share recent research and industry efforts toward inclusive innovation with AI.

Attendees will learn about:

* Applications of AI in accessibility.
* The landscape of AI bias, accessibility, and disability: several scholars have enumerated and categorized concerns that accessibility professionals can use as guidance when considering what they should think about when working at this intersection.
* Knowledge of recent research on AI innovation, case studies, and cross-industry and academic efforts working on ethical AI and accessibility.
* Resources for accessibility professionals growing their knowledge in AI ethics.

And there will be time for your questions.

This event will be online and in-person. Captions will be available.

PRESENTERS
Dr. Cynthia (Cindy) Bennett is a Senior Research Scientist in Google’s Responsible AI and Human-Centered Technology organization. Her research concerns the intersection of AI ethics and disability. For example, her 2021 research publications examined how AI misrepresentation impacts people who are minoritized based on their disabilities, gender, and/or race and how their lived experiences can inform the domains of image descriptions (alt text) and delivery robots moving through pedestrian spaces.

Her work has received grant funding from Microsoft Research and the National Science Foundation, and eight of her peer-reviewed publications have received awards. Cindy is a disabled woman scholar working in the tech and academic sectors, and she regularly volunteers to continue raising the participation of people systemically excluded from STEM. Cindy is a Brooklyn resident who enjoys building her tactile art collection, listening to jazz music, and talking, perhaps endlessly, about geography. Follow her on Twitter @clb5590.

Dr. Shari Trewin is an Engineering Manager at Google, leading a team that develops new assistive technologies and features. Her background is in research, with 21 patents and 70 peer-reviewed articles including AI fairness, accessibility tools for designers and developers, web accessibility, access to virtual worlds, and self-adaptive input devices.

Shari is a Distinguished Scientist of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), where she has chaired the ACM Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing (SIGACCESS), sat on ACM’s Diversity and Inclusion Council, and helped develop ACM’s accessibility guidance for authors and conference organizers. Outside of work, she enjoys volunteering at a therapeutic riding center; finding new ways to reduce, reuse and recycle; hiking; camping; and anything that involves rocks.

MEETUP

ACCESSIBILITY
The presentation will have Captions [CC].

LIVESTREAM
Provided by Internet Society New York Chapter Accessibility SIG.

ACCREDITATION
All A11yNYC meetups are pre-approved for IAAP Continuing Accessibility Education Credits (CAEC).

SPONSORS
Thanks to Asana, Evinced, Equal Entry, Fable, and Google for sponsoring.

ABOUT ACCESSIBILITY NYC

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[ladymoonan]

This is a fantastic video thank you. It cuts through the hype.