Page 17 - Mainstreamer e-Magazine Volume 1, Issue 3 - August 2023

IMPROVING QUALITY OF LIFE
Artificial Intelligence—Does It Improve the Quality of Life of

Person with Disabilities?

Sarune
Beh

cience, technology, and innovation (STI) or deafeningly; text summary for persons with
development boomed decades ago, with its mental disabilities; and real-time caption or
Sevolution expected to accelerate through interpretations for persons who are deaf.
used among the communities, especially PWDs, “
this century. The growth of STI has extended the
knowledge in this sphere and improved the quality
of life of people and communities in various fields,
including communication, agriculture, health,
However, these initiatives could be
medicine, and education. STI products should be

technology, including AI, to improve
in order to reap their benefits in improving their upgraded by employing emerging
quality of life. the quality of life of PWDs.”
In a research on the association between levels
of education with quality of life of PWDs, it was
demonstrated that physically disabled persons Gerard Quinn, the United Nations Special
scored the lowest level of quality of life compared Rapporteur on the rights of PWDs, in his report to
to people with other types of disabilities, including the United Nations in 2021 stated the following:
hearing, speech, and visual disabilities. Besides, ‘New technologies can be of enormous
they believed that the government should focus benefit to persons with disabilities and drive
on the environmental and physical domains for the search for inclusive equality across a
those who are visually and physically impaired, broad range of fields such as employment,
respectively. Therefore, this article opines that education and independent living.’
artificial intelligence (AI) technology could be He also mentioned that AI can help PWDs,
utilised for the betterment of PWDs. if used responsibly, to support inclusion and
The term “AI” was coined in the 1950s. The equality; make jobs more accessible; improve
development of the research of AI can be traced access to goods and services; support people living
from its inception in 1956. After almost 70 years of independently; and improve education. Thus, the
studies, AI has become more popular today thanks development of new knowledge in AI could be
to increased data volumes, advanced algorithms, utilised to enhance the accessibility, wellbeing, and
and computing power and storage improvements. quality of life of PWDs.
Digitalisation and emerging technologies affect our
lives and are increasingly present in many fields.
The potential contributions of AI to PWDs Utilising AI to Improve the Quality of Life of PWDs in
Malaysia
have been supported by experts from industry
players specialising in providing facilities to As of 31 January 2023, 637,537 PWDs in
PWDs. AI can reduce accessibility obstacles using Malaysia have registered with the Department of
various methods, including image recognition Social Welfare, Ministry of Women, Community
for those with low vision; facial recognition for and Family Development (MWCFD). According to
those who are blind or visually impaired; lips- the registration data, there are 152,065 (23.85%)
reading recognition for persons who are deaf PWDs below 18 years old and 349,618 (54.84%)

Vol. 01, Issue 3 | August 2022 16