Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities on Artificial Intelligence – published December 2021.
The Special Rapporteur’s report on Artificial intelligence and the rights of persons with disabilities addresses the rapid growth in the use of artificial intelligence, automated decision-making and machine-learning technologies from a disability rights perspective. These new technologies can be of enormous benefit to persons with disabilities and drive the search for inclusive equality across a broad range of fields such as employment, education and independent living. However, there are many well-known discriminatory impacts.
In this thematic study, the Special Rapporteur describes the risks that this technology constitutes to the enjoyment of the human rights of persons with disabilities, as provided by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He maintains that the human rights of persons with disabilities should be placed at the centre of the debate about these technologies. Once these risks are addressed, then the practical benefits of artificial intelligence might be realized. To that end, he also proposes some practical recommendations as to how this could be achieved in the final section of the report.