Artificial Intelligence and Inclusive Hiring

As part of our work leading the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology (PEAT), funded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, Cadmus Senior Specialist Bill Curtis-Davidson was invited to contribute his expertise in the field of inclusive applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for a recently published report and international panel. The report, Using AI to support people with disability in the labour market: Opportunities and challenges, was released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on November 24, 2023, and details the opportunities and challenges of using AI to foster labor market accessibility.

The report’s findings were discussed in a panel session at the 17th International Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE). Curtis-Davidson gave remarks before the panel, sharing details about PEAT’s work on AI and inclusive hiring. He stressed that technologies must be created with inclusion at the forefront and people with disabilities involved in every stage.

As stressed by Bill Curtis-Davidson, co-director of the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology (PEAT), “You could design the most equitable algorithm for a chatbot-enabled system used for candidate interviews, but if speech is required to use it, then it’s not accessible. The matching algorithm may be designed to avoid biases, but if you don’t have an accessible user interface you will exclude people who may not use the same modality of interaction” (Curtis-Davidson, 2023).

The panel, Using AI to Help People with Disabilities on the Labour Market: Opportunities and Challenges, featured the following experts:

• Chloé Touzet, Policy Researcher, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD
• Christine Hemphill, Managing Director, Open Inclusion
• Klaus Miesenberger, Associate Professor, Vice-Head, Institute for Integrated Study, Johannes Kepler University Linz
• Lampros Stergiouslas, UNESCO Chair / Professor in AI & Data Science for Society at The Hague University of Applied Sciences
• Chair: Luc De Witte, President, Global Alliance of Assistive Technology Organizations (GAATO)

Further Reading

• Read the full OECD report.
• Learn more about AI and Employment from OECD.AI Policy Observatory.
• Explore resources on inclusive AI from PEAT.