AI4D Hub for AI and Disability Inclusion

It is estimated that 10-20% of people in sub-Saharan Africa have disabilities and encounter significant barriers to education, health care and employment, making them the continent’s most marginalized population. Assistive technologies powered by artificial intelligence (AI) offer hope for greater disability inclusion. For instance, a voice-enabled wheelchair that supports African languages, created in Ghana, demonstrates the transformative possibilities of inclusive AI design. However, most promising innovations remain at the pilot stage, constrained by systemic barriers to scale.

A recent scoping study looked at how to expand responsible AI innovations that support the inclusion and empowerment of people with disabilities in Africa. The study identified three main obstacles: fragmented innovation ecosystems, a lack of disability data in official records and AI training sets, and weak integration of disability inclusion in AI policies and governance. These challenges lead to exclusion and make it difficult to scale solutions. Without comprehensive data, innovations can't address everyone's needs, and without supportive policies and systems, promising ideas stay limited, disconnected and hard to reach.

This initiative will establish a multi-stakeholder Hub for AI and Disability Inclusion, designed to advance scalable, inclusive AI solutions by providing targeted support and facilitating access to ethical disability datasets, research and policies that promote AI accessibility.

This project is a part of the Artificial Intelligence for Development program, a five-year partnership between IDRC and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to support policy, innovations and expanded leadership to spur safe and responsible AI development and use in Africa.