How can Artificial Intelligence (AI) improve digital accessibility for persons with disabilities?

MIKTA-led session highlights AI’s role in enhancing digital accessibility for persons with disabilities

The MIKTA-organised session, part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) framework, centred on the pivotal role of artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing digital accessibility for persons with disabilities. MIKTA, an acronym for Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey, and Australia, represents a group of countries committed to addressing global issues through cooperation. The discussion was anchored in the WSIS Action Line C3, which focuses on access, and highlighted the cross-sectoral relevance of accessibility, including its importance in e-government, climate action, and e-health.

Ambassador Francisca Mendez of Mexico emphasised the necessity for better coordination within the UN system to improve the lives of persons with disabilities. She pointed out the crucial contributions of the private sector and startups in creating empowering technologies for this demographic. Ambassador Mendez also underlined the ethical implications of AI, particularly concerning the protection of personal data and privacy.

Soowon Cho, CEO of Tuat Corporation from the Republic of Korea, presented SullivanPlus, an AI-powered visual aid app for the blind. The app provides auditory guidance based on images captured by smartphone cameras. Cho highlighted the challenges in ensuring digital accessibility and the importance of involving persons with disabilities in the development process to tailor services to their needs.

Lawyer Rosemary Kayess, unable to attend but represented through a video address, discussed the barriers faced by persons with disabilities, especially regarding inaccessible technologies and educational materials. She advocated for a societal shift to recognise impairment as part of human diversity, which should inform technological innovation and change.

Gitanjali Sah of the ITU moderated the session and proposed a hackathon focused on accessibility issues for persons with disabilities. She underscored the significance of startups and the need for apps to support multiple languages to enhance global usability. Sah also mentioned the ITU’s efforts in developing accessibility and multimedia standards.

The session concluded with a call for ongoing dialogue and potential collaborations to advance AI technologies that assist persons with disabilities. Emphasis was placed on inclusivity, accessibility, and ethical considerations. The discussion also addressed the need for security and consent in developing AI services for this group, ensuring trust and safety in the use of these technologies.

Key observations from the session included the recognition of the diverse needs and degrees of impairment among persons with disabilities, the importance of international cooperation and knowledge sharing, and the potential of AI to serve as an equaliser if ethical and inclusive practices are followed. Additionally, there was a consensus on the need to bridge the digital divide for persons with disabilities, particularly in developing countries, and the role of global partnerships in securing funding and investment for research and development in this field.

Overall, the session underscored the critical role of AI in promoting digital accessibility for persons with disabilities and the collective responsibility of governments, the private sector, and international organisations to ensure that technological advancements are inclusive and beneficial for all.

Gitanjali Sah:
We’d like to request you to please take your seats. We are about to start the session. So our session today is really interesting. It’s about how artificial intelligence improves digital accessibility for persons with disabilities. It’s by MIKTA, the group ambassador just explained to me. It’s Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey, and Australia. So a very important group of countries discussing a very important issue. So accessibility is a very important part of the WSIS framework. It essentially falls under the WSIS Action Line C3, which is access. However, it’s a cross-cutting issue across all the different action lines because accessibility is an important issue for e-governments, for climate change, climate action, for e-health, and a whole range of issues that the action lines cover. So today, we have on our panel Ambassador Francisca Mendes, permanent representative of Mexico to the UN office at Geneva. We have Lawyer Rosemary Cares. She is the member of the Committee on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities and Australia’s Disability Discrimination Commissioner. Unfortunately, she could not be with us today, but we have her video address. We have Lawyer Indra Maulana, Secretary of the Director General of Posts and Informatics Operation at the Ministry of Communications and Informatics of Indonesia. We have the CEO. of Suwoonchoo, CEO of Tuat Corporation, Republic of Korea. And I’m Geetanjali. Some of you know me. I’m the coordinator of the WSIS process here at the ITU. And we will start once Simena asks us, should we? OK. So colleagues, we’ll start with the video address from Lawyer Rosemary KS. And I’d like to ask our remote participation moderators to please ensure that it’s also in the Zoom room. This is being further elaborated in Article 15 of the International Benefits. Let’s start from the beginning. Yes. Maybe Amber, you could help Simena. Having some problems. Maybe we can start with Ambassador in the meanwhile. Ambassador, please, for your opening remarks. Over to you.

Ambassador Francisca Mendez:
Thank you. Thank you so much, dear Geetanjali.

Gitanjali Sah:
Yes, correct.

Ambassador Francisca Mendez:
And good afternoon, everybody. Thank you so much, Excellency, Australia, Ethiopia, dear colleagues and friends. Thank you for the ITU for the opportunity to organize in the framework of MIKTA Pro Regional Group. Mexico has the precedence. And we are trying to organize different kinds of events. And one of those events is this, that cover the important issue of the use of technologies and persons with disabilities. Well, I think that MIKTA is a very good example of international cooperation and knowledge sharing. In 2013, Mexico, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, and Australia established MIKTA as a cross-regional partnership of like-minded countries with shared values and a common goal to contribute positively to global governance. Today, the four countries of MIKTA, because we are five, but Turkey, unfortunately, couldn’t stay here. All the five countries, as well, are part of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. And if you notice this panel, are participating different, all the countries, except Turkey, but with different backgrounds. So, it’s to have an overview about the use of technology of persons with disabilities and the use of technology from different backgrounds, to have at least an overview of what are the main challenges and areas of opportunity. The Convention itself guarantees accessibility for all and to fulfill this promise in the digital age, innovative solution and imperative. Actually, the Article 24, Mariana, if I’m not wrong, it’s a very interesting article into the Convention about the international cooperation. And I have the honor to be here, my colleague that facilitated the negotiation of this article in the Convention. itself so many years ago, actually. So, it’s super important having a collaborative effort to enhance the development, deployment, and optimization of such technologies in some of the following ways. First, countries with advanced technological infrastructure and research capabilities can share their knowledge, tools, and best practices. This exchange accelerated the development and implementation of all driving solutions, ensuring a broader and more equitable distribution of accessible technologies. Second, through international cooperation facilitated by the ITU, stakeholders can work towards establishing global standards for all driving accessibility solutions. Standardization ensures that these technologies are interoperable across different regions and platforms, facilitating seamless integration and usability worldwide. Third, different regions may have unique accessibility challenges and user requirements. By collaborating internationally, developers can gain insights into these specific needs and tailor solutions accordingly, ensuring that the technologies are relevant and effective in diverse settings. Fourth, the active involvement of persons with disabilities in the international decision-making process and development of artificial intelligence is vital. Their first-hand experience and insights are invaluable in identifying real-world challenges and needs that all drive-in solutions should address, including them ensure that the developed technologies are truly use-centric and effective in improving accessibility. And finally, global partnerships can attract funding and investment from a wider range of sources, including international organizations, governments, and private sector entities. These financial resources are critical for research and development and the scaling of successful initiatives. Collaborative funding models can also help distribute costs and risks, making large-scale implementation more feasible. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you very much, Ambassador. You highlighted on the importance of international cooperation and coordination, specifically for this important issue of accessibility and for access to persons with disabilities. So this is absolutely crucial, and this is outlined in the WSIS principles in the Geneva Plan of Action and the WSIS outcomes. So it’s all in alignment with international cooperation and international documents like the WSIS. So thank you, Ambassador. In terms of standards, there’s a lot of work going on in the ITUT to develop standards around accessibility, multimedia, and maybe we could get in touch later to brief you about all these different activities that are going on in ITUT. There are various questions that are also linked to accessibility standards in the ITUT study groups, so we could discuss that as well. If Hemana, the video is not okay, so we can probably move on to So Eun-Chu has come all the way from Korea to be with us here today. Can you share with us some innovative AI-driven technologies and tools that have been developed by your company to improve digital accessibility? Over to you.

Soowon Cho:
Thank you. TWAT is an AI technology company that created SullivanPlus. SullivanPlus is an AI-based visual aid voice guidance app for the blind. When users take photos of their surroundings with their smartphone, the camera, as I tell the results. We developed this service to help a friend who suddenly became visually impaired after brain tumor surgery. We first launched the Android version in 2018. And in 2019, we started offering global service with the release of the iOS version. Now we service this app all around the world and all kinds of languages. So there are 300,000 visually impaired people using now. SullivanPlus helps visually impaired individuals in their daily lives through various features such as image description, text recognition, face recognition, and object finding. It also promotes social inclusion by improving the information accessibility. And this year, we launched the new service, Sullivan Finder. Sullivan Finder utilizes advanced AI technologies such as Onboard AI and Chatty Putty. It helps visually impaired individuals work safely and engage the in independent activities, even outdoors. Thanks to these efforts, we received the Best Mobile Innovation for Accessibility and Inclusion Award at the MWS Global Mobile Awards and the Innovation Award in the Software and Mobile Apps category at CES. The Sullivan Series is an essential service for the daily lives of the visually impaired, but it is incredibly challenging for the startup trots to sustain the Sullivan Service globally. Despite these challenges, the support from many people has made it possible so far. Many visually impaired individuals worldwide have created and shared tutorial videos on YouTube helping others in the same situation. Besides, more than 20 global volunteers translated the UI into their native languages, significantly enhancing accessibility for users. Ultimately, the cooperation of numerous visually impaired and sighted people worldwide has contributed to promoting and improving the Sullivan Plus service. In particular, Trot has received a variety of support through a business partnership with SK Telecom, a telecommunications company in Korea. They have supported advanced AIs, such as multimodal AI, face scan, and voice recognition AI, contributing to the improvement of the Sullivan Series’ performance. These have enabled the visually impaired people, not only in Korea, but also globally, to. perceive the world more precisely and accurately than before. We have experienced that, how the collaboration between AI and humans, disabled and non-disabled individuals, startups and large corporations can help people with disabilities. Thank you.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you very much, Suvon. Indeed, the role of startups is really important and we have been encouraging startups and young innovators through a lot of hackathons that we do at the ITU and also through WSIS. And we would love to do a hackathon on accessibility issues for persons with disabilities. Maybe we could talk about that for next year. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Ambassador, may I ask you another question? So what more can the UN do, Ambassador, in your view to be more innovative in terms of accommodating, you know, being inclusive in terms of the digital aspects for persons with accessibility problems?

Ambassador Francisca Mendez:
Thank you. Thank you so much for the interesting question. I would like to take the opportunity to have the welcome to the Ambassador of Indonesia and my colleague of Turkey as well that are present in this important panel. Well, I think one of the key elements of the person with disabilities and to improve their condition of life is that the UN system has to be more coordinated with more collaboration. There are so many entities working around the UN system for persons with disabilities, but it seems that sometimes there is a lack of coordination. And the coordination in the UN system is a key element. We have to work together on the same path with different elements, the use of technology, the use of the, with the contribution with the private sector as well, and the startup, and all the use of technology. So we need this kind of real coordination in the UN system. Thank you. On the other hand, as the artificial intelligence and the development of the technology is a cross-cutting issue, so we have to take into consideration all this kind of information and try to create these important links, and super important, have the view about the ethical consequences of the use of the artificial intelligence. So we have to put all in the same path, in the same basket, and trying to create synergies, collaboration, coordination, cooperation, in order to facilitate the life of the person with disabilities.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you, Ambassador. We’ve been listening to so many leaders and different stakeholders all through yesterday and the day before yesterday, and the main message that comes across is international cooperation, collaboration, cooperation with all stakeholders is so important for any effective program. So we will ensure that we work more closely with the 50 UN agencies, around 50 UN agencies that we work with, and make this probably an agenda item of the United Nations Group on Information Society, to explore how it can be coordinated better. Thank you, Ambassador. I’d like to now move on to Lawyer Indra Maulana. Greetings, sir. Welcome. So, Lawyer Maulana, how can emerging technologies such as AI support the work of ministries and communications and informatics to improve digital accessibility, to improve your work on digital accessibility?

Indra Maulana:
Okay, thank you, Ms. Gitanjali, Your Excellency, Ms. Prasinska Mendes, Ms. Swan Lee, and my Ambassador, Your Excellency, Pak Febrian Rudiani, from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia. It’s an interesting question from Gitanjali. How can we, actually, MIKTA, Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Turkey, and Australia, is also proposing to discuss this issue as the main topic, because it is important. Now is the correct time. I think it’s a match made in heaven for AI to flourish now, in the time that we can do more to people with disabilities. I would also like to congratulate Mexico for the chairmanship of the MIKTA in 2024, congratulations. I would like to emphasize also, I’m actually from the government, from the Ministry of Public of Indonesia. I’m not a lawyer. I’m not a lawyer in the sense of I handle legal issues in my government. Indonesia has a strong commitment and support of the Indonesian government in fulfilling and protecting rights of the disabled. This can be seen in the implementation of policies and programs related to disability. We have law number 8 of 2016 concerning people with disabilities. We have the National Master Plan for People with Disabilities, along with the National Human Rights Action Plan, or RANHAM. It’s a 25-year policy for people or persons with disability. AIIS has actually the potential to positively impact the lives of persons with disabilities by overcoming challenges and providing innovative solutions like speech-to-text applications and vision enhancement tools, improving communication and interaction. On the other hand, I also see AI poses risks to negatively impact the rights of persons with disabilities in relation to biased data sets and algorithmic discriminations. Also issues on transparency, privacy, cognitive silo and misinformation, and automated ablation in workplaces. Therefore, impact assessments and constructive steps are necessary to mitigate these impacts. In so far as utilizing AI for digital accessibility, on December 19, 2023, my minister, the Minister of Communication and Informatics, already signed Circular No. 9 of 2023, which outlines AI ethics in Indonesia, containing three key policies. One is ethical values. It defines the principles and values that guide the ethical use of AI. Second is implementation of ethical values. It provides guidelines for incorporating these values into the development and utilization of AI. And third one is responsibility. It emphasizes the responsibility of stakeholders in ensuring ethical practices in AI utilization and development. We also have the National Strategy on AI 2045, which orientates to human-centric ethics, resilient, secure, open, and accountable AI talents, national standard of competence for AI, and incentive scheme for AI research. We also partner with the communities, with Jawara. Jawara DGH won the prize for WSIS 2020. 24, or Category 4, capacity building, they are this ICT watch that promotes empowerment and assistance to persons with disabilities. So I think, yeah, we consider this a serious issue and we now have the technology advancement and this is the right time, I think, to give more to persons with disabilities by benefiting from AI technology. Thank you.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you, Mr. Maulana. Maybe I can ask you a follow-up question. You did share the example of the WSIS project prize winner, but do you have some other examples which you can share with us on what you have been doing using AI and if you have some future plans in the ministry? Over to you.

Indra Maulana:
We consider using AI to facilitate in the policymaking and regulation process. Of course, we are still in the early phase of the AI development. We also promote that countries with technological advancement to lead the world in the AI for persons with disabilities research so that globally we can also benefit from that technology. We have some of that technology in the public spheres like text and speech recognition and so forth, but I think this is also the right time to do more with assistance, like for people with mobility and cognitive needs. Thank you.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you, Mr. Maulana. I’d like to move to Ms. Cho. So, Ms. Cho, you spoke about this project being implemented in other parts of the world. How easy or difficult is it to replicate this and to share your example in other countries and to get the countries to implement what you are doing in Korea?

Soowon Cho:
Actually, many people attended our service, not in Korea, but worldwide. So, the start is very difficult, but actually many users attended on YouTube or many volunteers emailed our company to translate. That was very encouraging to our company and my members, so it is very helpful. And then many famous corporations, large corporations, you know, SK Telecom. and Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, so they are attending to our projects to enhance our service. So maybe in the future, the service is more nice than before. So it is very good, yeah, I think. And how many languages do you have this service in? Actually, our service, our Sullivan Plus app service all kind of languages and all around the world, so just only one country, North Korea. Yeah, so if you have iPhone or Android phone, you can download in Play Store and App Store. You can use our app service and spread out our service for your country’s blind people. It is very useful, their study or their daily life. Actually, I received the Indian teenager, teenage girl, she said email to me, I study hard your app service to examinations or daily readings, so we can stop our service, that story, that makes our, yes, courage. Thank you.

Gitanjali Sah:
Indeed, that’s very encouraging. And the more languages you can provide this app in, the more widely it could be used as well for people all around the world. So thank you very much. Ambassador, I’ll move on to you. What are your plans during your chairmanship of MIKTA? And do you also plan to do something in the area of artificial intelligence for disabled persons with disabilities?

Ambassador Francisca Mendez:
Well, thank you for the question. Actually, we plan for this precedence here in Geneva, at least 12 different activities. But we take these activities because in our capital, as a president, my minister, launch some priorities for the MIKTA presidents. And we have at least three priorities. The first one is to link all the works in MIKTA events, declaration, statement, link with the summit of the future, and especially in the improvement of the agenda 2030 and the SDGs. So we are trying to put our efforts in this agenda. And the second is, of course, we are a country with feminist foreign policy. So we are trying to put on the agenda this important topic as is gender equality. And the third one, we have this kind of topics, because we have our national priorities, and some of them has to do with the person in situation of vulnerability as migrants, person with disabilities, women and girls, indigenous people. So we are trying to link our national agenda to multilateral agenda into the MIKTA group. So considering these priorities, we design a program in this year that has to be with these priorities. And yeah, we organize around 12 different events. And this is one of them.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you, Ambassador. Indeed, while working with WHO on ICTs for older persons, we realized that older women are also often very vulnerable. And they do need us to kind of come up with the different assistive technologies, maybe using AI and others, and not consider them when we are thinking about vulnerable groups because there are many times excluded from this digital revolution. So this was one of the things that we discovered as well. Maybe Ambassador, we can open the floor in case there are any. Please. Please go ahead.

Audience:
Thank you so much, Gitanjali, and thank you so much, Ambassador Francisca, for making this event happen. And I would like to acknowledge your very active role in promoting the rights of people with disabilities. It’s very much a high priority for you as well as your government, so that’s great. I just wondered if the video’s not gonna be possible. I do have the text of Rosemary’s answers to the questions which I would be happy to read if that is the only option available to us. Try again.

Rosemary Kayess:
Hello, thank you for the invitation to speak today. Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. This has been further elaborated in Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which requires the recognition of the right of everyone. to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications. The preamble of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the CRPD, makes clear that everyone is entitled to all human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination of any kind. The purpose and objective of the CRPD is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all people with disabilities. The CRPD recognises that technology is a facilitator of the realisation of all other CRPD rights, such as the right to live independently and be included in the community, the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information, the right to employment, education and health and equality before the law. However, despite that people with disabilities have a right to the benefits of technology, they continue to experience significant barriers, particularly around accessibility and the challenges related to the lack of universal design and inclusive research and development. Significant barriers arise from the lack of adherence to universal design. These barriers include inaccessible technologies and educational materials that negatively impact on the education of children with disabilities. Compromised exercise of political rights when accessible ICT hardware is not provided at voting stations and information portals. Compromised employment opportunities when the technologies required for work are inaccessible and accessible web pages rendered inaccessible using security tools such as CAPTCHA. These serious barriers relate to how society views people with disabilities and this view creates a significant challenge to ensuring accessible digital technology for all. Our societies and research are based on a very narrow ableist norm. Disability has traditionally been understood as an individual deficit where people with disabilities are viewed as not able to be participating members of society. People with impairment are devalued and this devaluing leads to low expectations. This is the basis of ableism. No human has a complete repertoire of abilities suitable for all permutations of the physical and social environment. We are all relatively limited in some way at some time. It is imperative that we recognise and acknowledge impairment as just one aspect of human diversity. As an equally relevant aspect of the human condition. And that this informs our research, design and implementation of technological innovation and change. Human rights provide a framework that facilitates the recognition of people with disability as normative citizens and holders of rights. a member of the community with one of the myriad of variations of human diversity. Thank you.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you very much and I’m so glad the video played. Thank you ma’am for encouraging us to play it again. So that was a very important message also to keep a human-centric approach in whatever we are doing. Actually Ambassador and I were just discussing also this important issue and exploring if what we can do in the next WSIS Forum to make this, to take this to the next step and to bring more excitement around it. Any other questions? Yes sir, please go ahead.

Audience:
Okay thank you. First of all thank you for our panelists for providing the valuable information to us and I believe that artificial intelligence already in, especially for the accessibility and inclusivity, already in the part of the ethical principle has appeared in the 10 recommendations of UNESCO on the AI ethics. And I have a specific question to Ms. Cho because since you already shared about the action or the programs between the governments and also the telecommunication companies to provide the AI systems especially for visually impaired individuals. So I have the question that since I believe that in the government’s institutions, in the principle, we see that the accessibility and inclusivity are very important. But how to put into action to implement this? So my question is how the governments of Korea to start this program, collaboration with the private companies, for instance, that you mentioned, to provide the AI system, especially for the people with the special needs? I mean, how to stimulate the private sector to have the collaboration with the government? Do you have the particular best practices to stimulate them? I mean, like what kind of incentive? Maybe this program under the universal service obligation, maybe, or maybe you have the best practice that you can share to us so that we can see that this program can run successfully. Thank you.

Soowon Cho:
Thank you for your question. Actually, in Korea, government has some kind of programs to support the startups. Fortunately, I get many projects for a long time. Every year, I get one or two projects so I can sustain our team and our program for a long time. Because our service is very helpful for the Korean people, and our program was spread out around the world, so many government people support that point so we can sustain for a long time. Actually, startup was, but this service is really hard to service startup’s condition. But I said before, many companies, SK Telecoms and Samsung Electronics, and a few days ago, we received a letter from SoftBank in Japan. They want to collaboration this kind of disabilities and impairment people’s service. So it is very good chance for me, but not too easy. But Korean government support for a long time, and so we have possible this project till now. Thank you.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you so much. Mr. Wang, over to you.

Audience:
Thank you. Thank you so much. I represent you from Chinese mission. We appreciate Her Excellency, Ambassador Escobar, Chair and other co-sponsors who hold this event. It is very important one. As we know, all agree, people with disability are equal members in the family of humanity. So safeguarding their equal rights and promoting their integration and development are common consensus of the international community. So China, we want to express our position that as the partners here in the office, in the meeting room, we place a significant emphasis on advancing the rights and opportunities for persons with disabilities. Also, China is also willing to work with other parties to promote better integration and development of people with disabilities through the application of AI, especially promoting accessibility with a focus on inclusive and harmonious development society, and truly realize the goal of no one should be left behind. And we also take note that fast-growing AI, on the one hand, will help realize inclusive development and the rights of persons with a disability. But on the other hand, there also exists some inequalities for access to the AI services faced by the persons with disabilities around the world, especially from the developing countries. So I would like to pose a question to Her Excellency Ambassador Ed Corba. So I think in your opinion, what kind of measures should we jointly take to close the digital gaps faced by the persons with disabilities around the world? Thank you so much.

Ambassador Francisca Mendez:
Thank you, Mr. Wang. Difficult question. No, well, I have to be very honest. We have to close the gap in different levels. First one, from the global north and global south, I think. this is the first gap. And then, into the countries, we have to close the gap and to the different local development areas into the country. So, once we are closing the gaps, we have to take into consideration the person with disabilities, and not only the person with disabilities, all the person in vulnerable situation. As I told you before, we have the migrants, indigenous people, refugees, women, girls, and taking into consideration this person in vulnerable situation, we can close the gap, and at the same time, open up the opportunities to develop together the specificity of the digital technology for person with disabilities. But we have to think in this, belong in this society all together, because otherwise, we cannot close the gap. And we have to think about the integration, inclusivity, accessibility, and one key element is to understand better the condition and the situation of person with disabilities when we think about the artificial intelligence.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you, Ambassador. Actually, there are many questions in the floor, but our time has run out. I can see our business prize winner here, so maybe the last one to him from Tanzania. And then Ambassador with Ethiopia, okay. Ghana, and then…

Audience:
Okay, thank you very much. My name is Yun Francis. I’m from Rwanda, but I’m a Cameroonian. I’m a WISC Prize winner in the health category. So my startup is basically fighting breast cancer for women using AI. So my question is making AI accessible to the disabled people is very important, but have you also thought about the security around these people? Do they have consent? Do we think about how secure is this going to be for them? So how are you tackling that with your solutions? So thank you. That’s my question.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you very much. Should we maybe… Thank you. Thank you so much.

Audience:
Actually, that was my question.

Soowon Cho:
Actually, in our service, Sullivan Plus, not to, yes, not to save the photos, because many people are worried about their face or their house and surroundings, so they don’t want to do that. Actually, a very famous service, Be My Eyes, that was assistance service for the blind and non-blind people. It’s video communication, maybe. Yeah. But many blind people said to me that they don’t want to use that service because they don’t want to know someone’s their conditions. So AI is actually adaptive service at that point, but nowadays they’re worried because your same opinion. So actually some users ask email our company to ask that problem. So we don’t save your photos. So you don’t… Your Sullivan Plus apps, if you use Sullivan Plus app, take photos, smartphone, but there are no… photos in your phone. And actually, some case, the AI use cloud service, so our photos using server, but we are, okay, difficult pronunciation is not to, yes, not to save the in serve, so we are stop that problem. So many people’s using, many people worried about that, but we will find the best good way to stop that problem. Yeah, sorry, thank you.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you, Ambassador Ethiopia, please.

Audience:
Thank you. First of all, I would like to express sincere appreciation to Ambassador Francesca for the, and MIKTA as well, for making this important session come alive. We have discussed that there is significant barriers to persons of disabilities, but technology, particularly AI, can become the great equalizer. And in our part of the world, particularly the global South, developing countries, we have, first of all, we have that digital divide, and because of that, the accessibility, digital accessibility is also difficult. So now I would like, again, I’m also very much impressed with Madam Cho. It is actually, for my own personal reasons, it is very close to my heart, this issue of visually, an app that helps visually impaired people, and I was really delighted to hear that. But in Ethiopia, we have 120 million people, and over 70% of them are young people, very good at, they are tech savvy, and so we would like, I don’t know if there are any ways. we can collaborate. Number one, in translation or in what interpretation, whatever, in translation of the app. Secondly, in further development. I don’t know, that is private sector, but at least how can there be an international collaboration with you? Thank you.

Soowon Cho:
Thank you for your question. I will give you my name card after this meeting. And actually, in fact, when we first developed our service, we don’t consider this accessibility at first, actually. So we had to undergo three UI improvements in the first year due to this oversight. From this experience, we learned several things. Digital accessibility is a new area that the software developers need to learn. And even after learning, fully applying it to development is another challenge. So the degree of impairment and needs of the blind vary greatly, and their ability to use digital devices differs. So various situations must be considered from the beginning. In conclusion, when developing services using AI, it’s essential to involve a person with disabilities who has expertise in the relevant field from the design stage. And your question, and actually, first, we made this service because there are many expensive adaptive devices in the world, really expensive. AI-based glass is, I don’t know exactly, very, very expensive not to buy. In Korea, blind people too, not to buy. So I want to, that actually, if there is someone to META, please let me know. Because META’s glass is very reasonable price. So I think our service and collaboration with META, it is very reasonable price devices for the blind people, I think. So, but we, first, we made the app service before, it’s free. Because many countries, blind people, economical, yes, lower price, and usually young persons, students, study our app service, using our app service. It is very important chance to their lives changing. Yes, so I can’t, yes, actually, at first time, I want to subscribe models. But time goes by, I gave up, and we will find another way. So app service is, I want to, app service is free. So, of course, it is hard to buy Android. phone and Apple phone. But actually, our service have lower version, Polygon Lite. It is lower Android devices can download that version. So many blind people using our app service. So we want to our app service free. And there is another way to earn the money. Actually, Smart Glass and our software collaboration, that was a new way to earn and our business models. But our app service is free. That was because many blind students to study hard using our service. And their life is nice better before. Thank you.

Gitanjali Sah:
Thank you very much. We’ve run over time. Maybe the session was so inspirational, Ambassador. We should probably do a full track on accessibility issues next year, where we can look at different aspects of accessibility. And as organizers of forum, we would be very happy to also collaborate with you to do a hackathon. Because she touched upon a very important point of sensitizing youngsters, new developers, innovators, on what are the requirements of persons with disabilities. So that is a very important issue as well. Ambassador, I hand over to you to please close the session.

Ambassador Francisca Mendez:
Thank you very much. I trying to pick up five remarks very quickly. First, there are so many ongoing process about use of technology, artificial intelligence, and in the international Geneva. We need more conversation, more debates, more coordination and collaboration between the international organization. I just had a meeting yesterday about the use of technology in the Human Rights Council, in the UNHCR, in WIPO, because I’m part of a co-facilitating group as part of the demand of the President of the Human Rights Council. We are doing these interviews and it’s super interesting how the international organizations are working on the use of technology, the use of artificial intelligence. So we have to discuss this important debate. And the second one, I would like to stress the importance of use of the technology versus the responsibility and the ethical consequences as Indra expressed and do his intervention very well. We have to be sure that the use of technology is not against the person with disability, the use of the private data, and we have to be very careful about that. The third conclusion, well, Ms. Song-Won was very successful. We have an ongoing, maybe, collaboration between Ethiopia and Korea, but well, again, you can see with her intervention the importance of the private sector, the importance to have this lesson learned in the use of technology as well, and all the collaboration that we can create between the private sector. UN system. And the fourth element is the intervention of the lawyer, Rosemary Cases, who is not only a great lawyer from Australia, she’s part of the Committee of Persons with Disabilities. And I would like to stress one phrase from her. We are all limited in some time, in some way. So we have to have this condition that it had happened in any time, in any way. So we have to be very empathic with the person with disabilities. And the last reflection is about the question that our audience has been doing about the importance of inclusivity and accessibility, close the gap, as our Chinese colleague told us, and the intervention of Randa about the safety and of the use of the technology and the consent of the person with disability, which is very important. And finally, this important collaboration between the visual disability and the private sector. So thank you, thank you very much, my colleagues of the MIKTA group and all the audience, my colleagues of the Mexican Mission, and yourself, my dear. Thank you so much.