Rethinking Our Approach to Accessibility in the Era of Rapidly Emerging Technologies

Accessibility has always played catch-up to the detriment of people with disabilities - and this appears to be exacerbated by the rapid advancements in technology. A key question becomes, can we better predict where technology will be in 10 or 20 years and develop a plan to be better positioned to make these new technologies accessible when they make it to market? To attempt to address this question, a "Future of Interface Workshop" was convened in February 2023, chaired by Vinton Cerf and Gregg Vanderheiden that brought together leading researchers in artificial intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, computer vision, and VR/AR/XR, and disability to both a) identify barriers these new technologies might present and how to address them, and b) how these new technologies might be tapped to address current un- or under-addressed problems and populations. This paper provides an overview of the results of the workshop as well as the current version of the R&D Agenda work that was initiated at the conference. It will also present an alternate approach to accessibility that is being proposed based on the new emerging technologies.