One childhood memory stands out. My grandparents visited our house every Sunday. They arrived with a long list of important and sometimes sensitive phone calls they needed to make, to their bank, their doctor, family and friends. They would sit with my mother who was hearing and facilitated their calls by providing sign language interpretation, sometimes for hours. Difficult to imagine today, but for deaf people then, this was the ideal way to make phone calls.
Thirty-five years ago, the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) changed that.
The 1990 landmark civil rights law prohibited discrimination based on disability, helping to ensure equal opportunity in nearly all aspects of everyday living from employment and public services to transportation and telecommunications. The ADA wasn’t the first federal law of its kind, but it provided the widest-reaching protections ever for our deaf and disability communities.
From the fundamental act of calling your mother to curb cuts in big cities and Braille in elevators, the ADA has bettered millions of lives in ways unimaginable to my grandparents. In doing so, the ADA has made us a better nation.
The ADA’s force, though, goes much deeper than legal compliance. At its core, the ADA’s spirit calls for every generation to commit to meeting the needs of people with disabilities, not sideline or try to “fix” them. The ADA is as much a law as it is an enduring call to improve all lives, for society to value all people.
While the ADA never contemplated smart phones or AI, its foundational spirit remains as relevant as a guiding force as ever in today’s AI era.
Here’s why.
Disability is everyone, a natural part of the human experience.
Today, more than 70 million adults in the United States report having a disability, representing 25 percent of the U.S. adult population. Globally, more than 1 billion people live with a significant disability, representing a 10 percent increase from the 1970s. Several factors contribute to a rising disability population: extended life expectancies; a rise in chronic diseases; COVID-19’s long-term impact and greater acceptance and diagnosis of some disabilities. By 2050, 2.1 billion people will be 60 or older, more than double since 2015.
Disability is intrinsic to the human experience; it is far more ubiquitous than we think. While 25 percent of the population identifies as having a disability at a single point in time, this quickly approaches 100 percent when you look longitudinally over a human lifespan. In practical terms, you may not identify right now as being deaf or hard of hearing, but you are most certain to lose your hearing as you age.
When we talk about disability, we are talking about everyone. The ADA provides essential protections that every American needs and will benefit from, if not right now, soon.
AI delivers innovation and profitability, but does it remove bias?
From AI to quantum computing, we are living through an unprecedented technological revolution. A lot of good is coming from this, but today’s innovations do not guarantee “better” experiences for all of us. In fact, they often present new barriers or remove choices. For example, voice-only solutions from the drive-thru to AI assistants are largely inaccessible to most of the deaf community. Companies are quick to celebrate their latest innovation, but have they removed or reinforced inherent biases? Have they removed barriers or created new ones?
Today’s new technologies are no panacea for bias and the ADA’s prescient call to meet the needs of people with disabilities is the perfect safeguard.
Proven human-centered solutions make full autonomy more than possible.
My grandfather and grandmother did not have full autonomy, far from it.
Today, we know that with human-centered solutions, full autonomy is more than possible. For 50 years, our company, Communication Service for the Deaf, has pioneered assistive technologies for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, making the inaccessible accessible. This includes the nation’s first video relay service and, more recently, one of the first direct video calling solutions being used today by Comcast’s Xfinity, Google, Cox Communications and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. DVC provides direct and seamless communications access, eliminating the need for third-party sign language interpreters. With deaf and hard of hearing consumers representing $9 billion in discretionary income, no customer call center should be without it.
These and other inclusive technologies like sign language avatars are proof points that human-centered solutions, designed by and for deaf and disabled people, are not only possible but can provide a far better consumer experience than AI’s generic bits and bots. Human-centered solutions also prove that inclusive tech is not only more profitable but delivers a competitive edge. Companies that prioritize accessibility outperform their competitors by 28 percent.
There are few if any better answers to meet the needs of people with disabilities than with human-centered design.
Unlocking our full human potential far beyond the 21st century.
At 35 in the AI era, the ADA is not a relic, far from it. The ADA’s foundational spirit is a time machine that holds extraordinary power to unlock our full human potential and far beyond the 21st century. It is an unmatchable north star for the current and next technology revolutions. It is the very safeguard we need to ensure that our nation and future generations continue to meet the needs of millions of people and by doing so create a better life for all of us.