Disabled citizens and the future of AI

This article highlights the critical intersection of artificial intelligence, disability rights, and environmental sustainability in India, arguing that the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure risks deepening exclusion if designed without inclusive participation. While AI offers unprecedented independence for blind and disabled individuals by helping them navigate digital systems, current models often exhibit inherent biases that hinder rather than help. The Supreme Court has emphasized that accessibility is a fundamental right, yet government compliance remains poor, leaving disabled citizens to struggle with systems that were never built with them in mind. The technical flaws in current AI systems are significant, with research showing reduced accuracy for images important to disabled users and stereotypical responses from language models. These biases are compounded by a lack of representative training data, meaning AI cannot reliably function as a standalone solution for many disabled users. Consequently, individuals still require human assistance to navigate bureaucratic and digital hurdles, undermining the promise of autonomous technological empowerment. Relevance to open data lies in the urgent need for inclusive, representative datasets and accountable governance. The article calls for mandatory disability bias testing in AI systems and meaningful representation in training data, ensuring that open data practices do not perpetuate existing inequalities. Furthermore, it links this digital exclusion to physical infrastructure, warning that the booming data center industry must be regulated to protect vulnerable populations from grid failures. Ultimately, disabled Indians must be central to policy decisions regarding both the data that trains these models and the energy sources that power them.

Source: thehindu.com
Published on 2026-10-06

Disabled citizens and the future of AI

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