Can AI create a fairer future for people with disabilities?

While the world fears AI, people with disabilities are using it to create work, freedom and a new meaning for the verb “belong”

For millions of people with disabilities across the planet, artificial intelligence (AI) begins to represent much more than technological innovation — it appears as a concrete promise of autonomy, inclusion and dignity. No Purple Festcarried out in Goa, Indiaentrepreneurs and experts are showing how AI is transforming the field of assistive technology into a real empowerment tool in everyday life.

When developed from the lived experiences of people with disabilities, AI solutions like screen readers with voice interaction, adaptive panels e real-time automatic captioning systems not only eliminate barriers, but also expand opportunities. These tools redefine the concept of accessibility — they convert simple access into autonomyand autonomy in freedom to learn, work, lead and contribute fully to society.

Avoid a “brighter version of the same old prejudice”

The entrepreneur Surashree Rahane is a living example of this new scenario. Born with congenital clubfoot e polimelia — a condition in which a person is born with extra limbs —, she grew up in a family environment where disability was never seen as an obstacle, but as a different way of interacting with the world.

“My mentors always said: don’t just look for jobs, create them”, he recalls. “This is how I learned that leadership itself is inclusion.”

Today, Rahane is Founder and CEO of Yearbook Canvasa startup that develops personalized digital yearbooks for academic institutions. During his career, he realized that the challenges were not only in physical limitations, but also in invisible structural barriers — how lack of accessibility, exclusionary financing networks e inflexible educational models.

Determined to change this scenario, she works in partnership with Newton School of Technologynear New Delhi, developing AI-based learning tools that adjust to the rhythm of each student. For Rahane, the potential of artificial intelligence in education is immense, but it depends on a responsible approach:

“AI can democratize access to educationbut only if we teach it to understand students with different profiles. Otherwise, we run the risk of creating a more sophisticated version of the same old bias..”

The “great equalizer”

The technological revolution driven by AI is opening doors previously considered unreachable. Since speech-to-text systems for people with speech difficulties up to gesture-controlled wheelchairswhat once seemed like science fiction is now part of everyday life for many.

To Prateek MadhavCEO yes AssisTech Foundation (ATF)AI is “the great equalizer.” He counters the global fear that technology will replace jobs:
“While the world worries about AI taking away jobs, for people with disabilities, AI is creating jobs.”

One of the practical examples comes from Ketan Kothariconsultant for Xavier Resource Center for the Visually Impairedin Mumbai. He tells how AI tools gave him total independence in the professional environment.
“Today I can format documents, participate in meetings with live captions and even generate visual descriptions through applications“he explains.”AI has transformed imagination into functionality.”

Inclusion as a collective construction

O Purple Fest gathers majority Indian entrepreneurs and leadersbut the impact of the experiences presented goes far beyond the borders of India. To Tshering Demado UN Development Coordination Officethe event reflects a movement with global reach.

“This is not a story of a single country – it is a global transition”, he states. “Inclusion is not limited to laws or infrastructure; it’s about shared mindset and planning. The future of work must be built not just for people, but with them.”

A future of opportunities

What we saw in Goa was not just a technology exhibition, but a future vision. A future in which artificial intelligence is used not as a substitute for human capacity, but as a amplifier of each individual’s potentialregardless of their physical or sensory limitations.

As the world debates the ethical and economic risks of AI, people like Surashree Rahane, Prateek Madhav and Ketan Kothari show that the answer may lie precisely in using technology to promote justice, equity and independence.

The digital revolution, when driven by empathy and purpose, can transform lives — and perhaps, for the first time, artificial intelligence is helping humanity become a little more human.