When it comes to AI, the people who know most about disability inclusion are rarely involved when new technology is chosen and implemented. And while changing that structurally may take time, there is something you can do right now, by giving the people who are in those rooms better questions to ask.
Here are three questions worth sharing with your technology and procurement colleagues before the next tool gets selected:
1. Who will actually be using this tool, and have we spoken to them?
Any good technology team should already be asking this.
But if the answer doesn’t include people with disability, whether as employees, customers, or testers, it’s a signal that a significant group of users hasn’t been considered. It’s an easy question to raise without challenging the standard process, and it opens the door to a more inclusive evaluation from the start.
2. What happens when this tool doesn’t work for someone?
This is the question most teams haven’t thought through yet.
Asking it early means accountability is built into the process from the start, rather than retrofitted after a complaint or an incident. It also signals that your organisation expects vendors to have considered failure modes, not just features.
3. How do we make sure this stays fit for purpose as our workforce and customer base changes?
AI tools aren’t static.
They reflect the data they were trained on, and that data has a shelf life. This question shifts the conversation from a one-off procurement decision to an ongoing responsibility, and positions inclusive design as a standard part of how your organisation manages technology over time, not just how it buys it.
These three questions move in a deliberate sequence:
- Who was considered at the start?
- What happens when things go wrong?
- How do we keep improving?
Together they give your technology colleagues a way of thinking about disability inclusion that fits naturally into how they already work.