AI for All: Using AI to improve the accessibility of services - Nexer @ Manchester's Digital Strategy Event:

Join Chris Bush and Lee Valentine for their presentation on the importance of inclusive design in creating products and services that are accessible to all users.

They will highlight how AI can help remove barriers to accessibility and provides some examples of how organisations have successfully implemented inclusive design strategies for their own products and services.
The talk explores the potential of AI to open up new opportunities in this field and will introduce Nexer's own design principles for AI and the importance of building effective, equitable teams.

1. Hello we’re Nexer

2. Yourspeakersfortoday



Chris Bush Lee Valentine
Head of Design group Business Analyst

3. Design for all:
How AI can help enable innovation for inclusion

4. Thinking about inclusion

5. 1.4 billion people
worldwide have a
long-term disability
1 in 6
World Health Organisation

6. 16 million people
in the UK
have some form of disability
1 in 4
Office of National Statistics

7. Types of impairment
Visual Auditory
ability to ability to
perceive or process perceive or process
visual information auditory information
Sensorimotor Speech Cognitive Mental health
ability to ability to ability in a mental health
feel and manipulate produce sounds mentally demanding condition is
a physical device clearly, smoothly, areas: reading, considered a
quickly, smoothly, and understandably memory, attention, disability if it has a
and accurately language, complex long-term effect on
concepts, problem your normal day-to -
solving day activity.
Gov UK “When a mental health condition becomes a disability”, Equality Act 2010

8. AI + Accessibility

9. Improving the
user experience
Supporting inclusive
ways of working

10. Involve real users
Inclusive design
principles for
generative AI
Focus on user needs and context
Remove barriers
Provide control
Design with transparency
Maintain quality and accuracy
Ethical and responsible use
Support different interaction preferences
Compliance with accessibility standards

11. Inclusive design
principles for
generative AI
Involve real users
Focus on user needs and context
Remove barriers
Provide control
Design with transparency
Maintain quality and accuracy
Ethical and responsible use
Support different interaction preferences
Compliance with accessibility standards

12. Focus on
user needs
and their
context

15. Remove
barriers

16. Swindon
Council
(+ Experts by experience)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leQegdK-1M8

17. Support
different
interaction
preferences

18. https://sites.research.google/euphonia/about/

19. Verboso

20. Maintain quality
and accuracy.
Get real
user feedback

21. Inclusive ways of
working

22. How we make
working inclusive
at Nexer

23. Employee Resource Groups
Access @ Nexer
Disability
• Published guidance on
inclusive meetings
• Early research on M365 Copilot for
disabled and neurodiverse
experiences
• Delivered accessibility awareness
sessions to colleagues in Sweden
C.A.R.I.N.G
Cultural and religious
• Creating awareness
and increasing cultural
intelligence
• Improving diversity in
leadership roles
• Helping colleagues to
participate in cultural events
Still Proud
LGBTQIA+
• Developed resources to
educate about LGBTQIA+
inclusion
• Organised charity event for
#StillProud
• Show and Learn for
International Pronoun Day

24. Manual
of Me
Access needs and preferred communication methods
Supportive environment with respect for diversity
Sharing personal experiences and challenges

25. Lived and
learned
experiences
Neurodiverse Ways of Working Field Guide
Good Practice for Hearing Loss in meetings
Neurodiversity awareness and communication training

26. Sharing knowledge
across our teams

27. Recognising
and
overcoming
barriers

28. Liam is a skilled business analyst with expertise in analysing data and
Liam
creating accessible digital solutions.
Business Analyst
Liam has a hearing impairment and uses lip reading and captioning for
communication.
Barriers / Difficulties
• Cannot watch video without subtitles / closed
captioning.
• Cannot participate in remote or hybrid meetings
without captioning or transcriptions.
• Cognitive load from note taking can lead to missed
information.
• Challenges in following different perspectives
discussed in meetings.
• Difficulty in recognising who said what during meetings.
How Copilot can help Liam
• Real-time captioning and transcriptions enabled
• Recaps of meetings using transcriptions
Provides text versions of his meetings and use Copilot for analysis
• Catch up and gain insights from videos
Helps isolate key information from long recordings
• Meeting summaries and note generation assistance
Helps them catch up without needing to read/write extensive meeting
minutes
• Attribute contributions to specific speakers
Helps them recognise each individual contributor and follow
discussions more effectively

29. Let’s use technology to break down barriers,
and design to include everyone, ensuring equal
access and opportunities for all.

30. Useful resources
Nexer’sinclusive
designprinciples
forAI
Microsoft inclusivedesign
Opportunities for AI
in Accessibility
DesigninggenerativeAI
toworkforpeoplewith
disabilities
Council using AI to
help people with
learning disabilities
UKNationalAI
strategy

31. THANK YOU
Any questions?
[email protected]
[email protected]