Inclusive Content and AI

June 12, 2024

Image generated using the prompt “a circle of diverse stick figures surrounding a computer chip, connected to it, with a colourful background” by Adobe Firefly, 2024.

Reading Time: About 8 minutes

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework provides a pathway for designing learning materials that support all learners, regardless of their backgrounds, abilities, or learning preferences. In addition, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) offer useful ways to design and structure content for diversity and inclusion. One of the commonly cited benefits of generative AI is its ability to offer individualized and personalized content support. How can instructors utilize these capabilities for designing inclusive content? What are the practices that can help enrich the learning experience for all students?

This guide explores ways in which instructors can leverage generative AI for designing learning content for diversity and inclusion. It also explores ways in which the use of generative AI can assist with and augment the disability-related accommodations and services students seek, due to ongoing medical conditions, to meet their learning needs. This guide is just a first step in exploring the potential. It is not meant to be comprehensive or prescriptive but offers possibilities and approaches to spark thinking.

It’s important to note that generative AI tools are continuously evolving. All Large Language Models (LLMs), including ChatGPT, Gemini, and the tools that are based on these models such as Copilot, Otteri.ai, and ChatPDF, generate content that may not always be accurate (may “hallucinate”) and must be fact-checked. Moreover, there are concerns related to information protection and privacy, so caution must be exercised when engaging with these tools. For UBC approved tools, refer to Privacy Impact Assessments for GenerativeAI.

Plain English

Using plain English is a WCAG recommendation for accessibility that ensures all students, regardless of background or ability, can easily understand and engage with the material. This approach fosters clarity, retention, and engagement, while also promoting cultural sensitivity and preparing students for effective communication. It is important to note, especially in academic contexts, that the use of plain English is not a replacement for complex subject-specific terminology. Rather, plain English should be used for instructions, wayfinding, and communications to ensure that expectations for students are explicit and easy to follow.

There are two possible ways to fulfill the plain language requirement. You can either proactively design course materials aligned with this requirement, and additionally use AI tools such as Copilot to simplify the language, or guide students to use the generative AI tools on their own by using prompts such as “Rewrite the content in plain English” or “I am a student trying to understand the basics of the subject (specify the subject area), simplify the wording for the content provided.” In this latter case, to avoid potentially risking violation of course copyright, it’s best to advise students to use FIPPA compliant AI tools or to review the tool’s privacy policy before entering the course content.

Structuring Content

Chunking content can enhance readability and understanding of the material. Adding meaningful paragraph titles help students review main points and remember the key information.

If you have a large wall of text to chunk, you can offload this work to generative AI using prompts like “Chunk the material into meaningful paragraphs, add titles and headings.” Providing additional context such as the subject area or topic in the prompt can also be helpful.

Note Taking

Students who require accommodations often request note-taking services. With generative AI tools, this task can now be automated.

There are several ways in which generative AI can be leveraged for note taking.

Students can use the Office365 Transcribe feature, or they can use more specialized tools such as Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai.
During synchronous sessions, Zoom AI Companion (UBC PIA review in progress) can be used to create real-time transcriptions, divide meeting recordings into smart chapters, highlight important information, recap meetings, and help users compose email messages with the right tone and length. It is a recommended that users inform and seek permission from meeting participants when using AI note taking tools.

However, normalizing reliance on AI notetaking for all students may discourage active listening and critical thinking, which are essential skills for deep understanding and retention of material (Watkins, 2024).

Summarizing Information

Generative AI tools can be helpful in condensing information and writing document summaries. For individuals with visual impairments, summaries offer a quicker way to grasp key points without having to navigate through lengthy documents. Those with cognitive disabilities may also find it easier to process and retain information when it’s presented in a condensed form.

Using generative AI to summarize information can save time and effort.

You can upload your document to HuggingChat and prompt it to “Act as an expert article reviewer and summarize the article that I will provide. Give me the article title, author, date, and key point of the article, along with its main points and conclusion,” and it will summarize the document for you.
You can also achieve this with ChatGPT or by using AI tools such as Pop.ai and ChatPDF that are designed specifically for interacting with documents, including research papers and articles.

You can also encourage students to do this on their own for any additional material, such as papers, articles, and so forth. However, where the learning goals involve developing summarization skills and comprehending material independently of aids, you may opt to restrict the use of AI tools for such purposes in the course AI statement.

In the words of Jane Rosenzweig, director of the Harvard College Writing Center: “There are tasks a chatbot can do pretty well that we still want our students to do themselves, for good reasons. For example, the fact that ChatGPT can summarize and analyze an article that I feed it, does not mean that I no longer want students in my writing course to read articles or analyze what they read. I don’t assign summary and analysis because I need more summaries or analyses; I assign these projects because I want to help my students think through complex ideas and grapple with them. And I don’t ask my students to write papers because the world needs more student papers; I assign papers because I want my students to go through the process of figuring out what they think.”

Translation

Students facing language barriers to interacting with the course material can use generative AI to translate the material in their native language.

ChatGPT can translate through Voice Mode in real time with interruptions and in 50 different languages.
Mate Translate, an extension available in the Chrome browser, can also translate webpages, highlighted text, and Netflix subtitles for 103 different languages.

It must be noted, however, that AI or machine translation often fails to accurately capture nuances and cultural context. Machine translation “is often of lower quality and exhibits biases in topic selection, favoring the shorter and more predictable, predominantly from general topics like conversations, opinions, and listicles intended to drive ad revenue” (Elrod, 2024).

Reading and Understanding Images

Any text embedded in images is not readable through assistive technologies. This includes scanned documents and data in the form of infographics.

It is now possible to extract text from images and make the content digitally accessible using generative AI.

Upload an image to Copilot or ChatGPT and prompt it to read or extract the text. You can also have the text read aloud with the voice feature.
Google Lens, (the camera icon located in the Google search bar) is specifically designed to engage with multimodal text. It can capture scanned documents including tickets, posters, and writing, and can search for results on the web or read the identified text aloud.
Recently, the iPhone camera also integrated a feature which can immediately capture text and translate it. This feature is available from iOS 16.

Planning, Organization, and Time Management

AI tools can be used to support executive function accommodations for organization, planning, and time management. They can assist students with cognitive disabilities by organizing complex tasks into manageable steps, reducing the cognitive load and stress associated with executive function challenges.

GoblinTools has been specifically designed for neurodivergent people. It includes a “Magic To-Do” function which breaks down tasks and estimates the time needed to complete them, as well as a “Formalizer” which assists with rephrasing long and confusing messages, among many other functions.
Motion, although behind a paywall, is another tool which helps with planning and scheduling the user’s day. With this tool, students can schedule meetings, book focused attention sessions, and plan around deadlines.

American Sign Language (ASL)

In the area of American Sign Language (ASL), there are emerging AI technologies which can bridge the gap for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals in accessing educational resources by providing real-time translation between ASL and spoken or written language.

ASL AI may also be used to help hearing people learn sign language, fostering empathy between Deaf and hearing communities. Some of these tools include:

Slait.ai, designed to recognize gestures and speech and convert them to text in real time during live video communication.
Signapse, which uses AI synthetic signers to provide translation for websites, video, and audio, as well as announcements in public spaces.

Writing and Editing

Students needing support with academic writing or those with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia or dysgraphia, may struggle with spelling, grammar, organization, or other aspects of writing. While Copilot, ChatGPT and other LLMs can help with writing, numerous specialized tools are also available.

AI-powered grammar and spell checkers such as Grammarly can help students identify and correct errors in their writing, with additional options for adjusting the tone. Some of these features are now available in Office 365.
AI-driven word prediction tools suggest words or phrases as users type, supporting those with spelling difficulties or text generation challenges. These tools are becoming more commonplace with integration into Google Suite and Apple iOS.
Quillbot, Jenni, and other writing assistants provide suggestions for improving writing style, clarity, and coherence.

Video Summaries

While certain people with disabilities may have difficulty consuming large amounts of information or may struggle with certain types of media, video summaries can help provide an overview of content.

AI technology which generates video summaries may be used by instructors for lecture recordings or longer videos to make content more accessible.

Harpa.ai is an AI Chrome browser extension which can generate video summaries by extracting key takeaways from videos uploaded to YouTube.
Notta (behind a paywall) has built-in and customizable templates and prompts to capture insights and action items from the video content.
Descript is a video editor that also has an AI summarizer. It also has a feature that generates short clips for key pieces of content, helping highlight important information.

Although AI tools can support individualized needs and facilitate learning, there is a risk of misuse, potentially fostering dependency and detracting from efforts to build necessary academic skills. Hence, it’s crucial for instructors to set out clear guidelines in the syllabus regarding the use of AI tools to ensure their appropriate utilization.

References

Elrod, A. G. (2024, March 19). The Machine-Translated Web: Signs of a New Educational Reality. EDUCAUSE.

Rosenzweig, J. (2024, May 22). ChatGPT is at odds with what education is for. The Boston Globe.

Watkins, M. (2024, May 10). AI’s Promise To Pay Attention For You. Substack.

Additional Resources

Gibson, R. (2024, September 10). The Impact of AI in Advancing Accessibility for Learners with Disabilities. EDUCAUSE.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.