Mr. John Sherwin:

The cost of disability is a huge factor. It is something we are campaigning on all the time. It needs to be considered from the start.

Gender and race bias are not the only biases that can get introduced to processes. When you have enterprise, a profit bias can be introduced and disabled people and deaf people are in the minority in terms of customer income and revenue for companies. This is where there needs to be a legislative approach to making sure that products, including software products like AI, are equitable for everyone to use.

Yes, there is a severe poverty and income gap for disabled people. As we mentioned, Ireland has the worst record for disabled employment in Europe, which is a shameful thing and must be addressed. We are very concerned about the financial gap. We are also concerned about the training gap. Often, disabled people have lower levels of educational attainment and the quality of their education can be poorer. There is the availability of the tools but also the ability to use the tools.

The bigger concern is whether AI tools are going to end up taking control away from disabled people rather than providing them with more control. All of these questions are related, but certainly we need to be involved at product design and creation stage and not just at the testing stage.