“Accessibility People, You Go Work on That Thing of Yours over There”: Addressing Disability Inclusion in AI Product Organizations

Abstract

The rapid emergence of generative AI has changed the way that software is designed, constructed, maintained, and evaluated. Decisions made when creating AI-powered systems may impact some users disproportionately, including vulnerable communities such as people with disabilities. In this paper, we report on an interview with 25 AI practitioners across multiple roles (engineering, research, UX, and responsible AI) about how their work processes and artifacts may impact end users with disabilities. We found that practitioners experienced friction triaging problems at the intersection of responsible AI and accessibility practices, navigated contradictions between accessibility and responsible AI guidelines, identified gaps in data about users with disabilities, and gathered support for addressing the needs of disabled stakeholders by leveraging informal volunteer and community groups within their company. Based on these findings, we offer suggestions for new resources and process changes to better support people with disabilities as end users of AI.