Led by the Global Disability Innovation (GDI) Hub, UCL Computer Science's disability innovation research is harnessing computer science to make positive changes at every level.
It starts with the individual. Co-designing assistive technology (AT) with disabled people, listening and paying attention to the social and psychological effects of both the challenges they face and the solutions we design.
Then we move up to the next level to ask, ‘how will this inclusive tech fit into the wider world?’ Researching inclusive design for the built environment allows us to align AT with the environment it’s used in, and identify areas where we can work with planners to improve accessibility.
Finally, we use a wider lens to lead projects at international and population levels, accelerating social change by collaborating across borders with governments and international NGOs.
Disability innovation isn’t just about inventing new AT – we're connecting knowledge capital, network capital and financial capital to ensure that potentially life-changing developments get translated from the lab bench to the homes and workplaces of millions of people.
What kind of disability innovation are we working on at UCL?
AI for assistive technology
Using an evidence-led approach that looks at how people are already using AI, we’re aiming to maximise the potential for what could be the greatest enabling technology of the 21st century.
Working in partnership with UNESCO and others, we’re finding out through systematic review how different governments and populations are using AI to support their responses to humanitarian crises.
Sharing the best ways to use these new tools could potentially save lives, and ensure the needs of both existing and newly disabled people are given equitable consideration in disaster response.
What other ways are we using AI for AT? We’re combining generative AI with complex real-time travel data and disabled-user-friendly interfaces to revolutionise accessible journey planning (e.g., AI Mapper project). We are also developing new AI frameworks for personalised physiological sensing systems and brain-computer interfaces for all. We’re also combining computer vision systems with stretchable sensors to create smart prosthetic liners that improve prosthetic comfort, function and durability for amputees.
Working globally to bring assistive technology closer to home
Led by the Global Disability Innovation Hub, a deep and broad set of networked international partners lets us deliver benefits at scale – but also at the local level.
Cross-subsidising innovation lets us to leverage different funding contexts and environments internationally, giving us a better chance of bringing new AT products to market.
We’re assisted in this work by projects like GDI Hub's AT2030 research programme. Funded by the UK government, our recent success in introducing hearing aids to the UNICEF supply catalogue (bringing the cost of bulk-bought hearing aids in Rwanda down from $2,000 to $118) is a good example of how our partnerships work.
It’s not just about big partners like UNICEF, though. Assistive technology is often manufactured many miles away from the people who use it, so building out local production and repair networks is a vital part of keeping everyone’s AT in good working order and safe to use.
Our research projects with wheelchair users in Kathmandu, or our support of local prosthetic technicians in Sierra Leone are just two instances of how UCL Computer Science's disability innovation research is removing barriers to mobility and independence – both globally and locally.
Making room for everyone in the large language models
Text-to-speech technology is typically trained on standard speech patterns in the world’s most popular languages – which limits its potential for life-changing applications for disabled people across the world.
In Ghana, we’re helping people who face barriers to being understood within their community, but don’t have access to Ghanaian language-supported assistive technology that could help them.
Working with Google.org, the GDI Hub's new Centre for Digital Language Inclusion is designing bespoke language models and collecting non-standard speech in Ghanaian languages to create text-to-speech technology that will help users make sure they can be understood and have a voice.
What’s coming next?
Rising life expectancies and declining birth rates mean our ageing global population will become increasingly reliant on AT and disability innovation research.
With this in mind, we need to harness the life-changing power of technologies such as AI to empower and include everyone – rather than isolating vulnerable people in a world where digital connectivity is increasingly used as a substitute for human contact.
At an individual, organisational and collective level, all of us (including UCL) can find ways to be more inclusive. Our disability innovation research is one of the ways we’re working on that.
