Event Description
Persons who are Blind and Vision Impaired (BVI) are an innately economically disadvantaged population segment in society today. For example, consider that we have been constrained to one physical line of refreshable character limit for decades! As we move out of the first quarter of the Twenty-First Century, new access technology (AT) innovations to close this access gap and lag for BVI persons may become reality – just around the corner are multi-line refreshable braille AT which will provide real-time access to text and graphics. Yet beyond the BVI community, the world is looking at the dawn of the next transformative technological advancement for society – artificial intelligence. As we see its true potential benefits emerge, we must be mindful of the accompanying risks for the BVI and what it cannot do. Current biases in economic and social dynamics are bleeding into AI technologies. Whether explaining information through mono-modal presentations, or recommendations that fail to consider the specific needs of the blind, we need to consider the influence of these biases on AI-mediated medical applications, diagnoses and recommendations. Only then can we shape a truly inclusive new age of technological innovation which expands equity in access and quality of healthcare for the marginalized BVI population.
Event Speaker
Cary Supalo, research developer at Educational Testing Service
Event Information
Free and open to the public. For more information, please email David Lamb at [email protected]. All in-person attendees must follow Columbia's COVID-19 policies.
Hosted by the Precision Medicine: Ethics, Politics, and Culture Project at Columbia University.
