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AI and VR Effects on People with Disabilities

There is a lot of chatter around AI (artificial intelligence) and VR (virtual reality) lately. Both technologies have a lot of potential benefits for people with disabilities. For the sake of personal experience, I am going to focus on vision and hearing loss, and touch on mobility since both can cause balance issues.

AI is the trickier one. We’re already seeing ramifications of it in the education arena because of the blurred lines with plagiarism. There’s also the potential for AI to evolve to the point that they are “smarter” than humans. It depends on the context I guess, especially when solving technical issues vs. drawing from creative experience.

For vision, AI can help fill out forms. For example, intake forms at the doctor’s office or other paperwork that is typically in small print not given much time to fill out. AI can help with directional and descriptive tasks that would enable the blind or visually impaired travel and navigate new environments more independently. I mentioned mobility and balance earlier—If I am not familiar with barriers such as subtle steps and holes in sidewalks, navigation can be tedious and challenging. I am trained to use a white cane, but AI could describe a setting in detail before I start walking.

The big one is household tasks. We already have rhoombas, so I envision something that could do other cleaning tasks that require some attention to detail. The same robot could also put things together, which is tough for me because it’s hard to see the screws, etc. AI alert systems would be great for people with hearing loss, especially for fire alarms and natural disasters.

VR is more exciting to me in the near term. It is not new, but it hasn’t really gone mainstream yet from what I can tell. Apple just released the Vision Pro headset that looks promising. Apple has always had the right types of settings that fit my needs as a visually impaired person, so I see this release as an extension of those capabilities. The photos of Vision Pro’s features represent the type of technology that I’ve always wanted. A user can directly interact with a screen. For example, if I need to enlarge text or bring the screen closer, I can do it without the constraints of a monitor stand. I have a monitor at work that is attached to a swing mount that goes in any direction, but there are still constraints with the position of the keyboard and mouse. I’ll give this headset a few years to mature and see what happens.

Today’s technology advancements are like living out an episode of Star Trek. They used tablets, AI, and VR well before they actually existed. I just hope we can figure out how to teleport (safely of course).

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