Summary
- LLMs like ChatGPT can be incredibly helpful for individuals with dyslexia, providing proofreading and assistance in writing emails.
- Google Bard can teach mathematical concepts to those with dyscalculia, presenting information in a way that is easier to understand and allowing for questions and clarification during the conversation.
- They can also help individuals with ADHD stay focused on one topic by consolidating information into one browser tab, reducing distractions and allowing for efficient research and planning.
AI has been all the rage recently, and it's been controversial for a number of reasons. There are a number of ethical concerns relating to the training of these machine learning models, along with the potential for them to aid in plagiarism, sometimes without the user's knowledge. However, language models like ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Bing Chat are tools first and foremost, and like any tool, they can be used for good or evil. In the case of large language models (LLM), they have a massive potential to be hugely helpful for accessibility.
1 Proofreading and structure
LLMs are an amazing tool for those with dyslexia
I've talked about this in my previous articles before, but LLMs have helped a good friend of mine with dyslexia who wanted to write emails to colleagues. He uses tools like Grammarly and often has a friend read over it, too, but he's been able to rely on ChatGPT to help him proofread and send his emails without spelling or grammatical errors in recent months.
Even better is that often, you can just ask a tool like ChatGPT to write an email for you with the information that you want to convey, and it'll get you 90% of the way there. My friend has also done this for more complicated emails, and just tweaks it after the fact.
2 Explaining mathematical concepts
At least, the structure is usually right
Similarly to how ChatGPT can help with dyslexia, I've seen Google Bard have great success in teaching mathematical concepts to those with dyscalculia. My girlfriend has dyscalculia and often struggles with some mathematical tasks, particularly when it comes to budgeting. A few months ago, I was able to use Google Bard to build out a budget based on our combined incomes, outgoing monthly expenses, and other changing expenses like electricity, gas, and groceries. It took all of that information and disseminated it in a way that made it easy for my girlfriend to understand, and she could then ask questions in the same conversation about anything that she didn't understand.
Of course, LLMs are not perfect at math, but they get you most of the way there. The numbers themselves are usually fine for her, and it's typically the structure that she struggles with. Google Bard has really helped with making them easier to understand, which she can then verify. At least when it comes to Bard, it's usually right, but it's still not a tool you can completely rely on for everything mathematical yet.
3 Staying focused on one topic
Keeping it all in one tab
Something I've heard is how LLMs can help people with ADHD stay on topic. I know many people with ADHD who have said that Google Bard and Bing Chat have been excellent for internet research because they consolidate everything into one tab in their browser. There's no getting distracted, no going down rabbit holes; it's just one tab to focus on. Want to find a book after you've finished another? Want to plan a dinner with ingredients you know you have? Are you trying to research an all-new topic and don't know where to start? You can ask a question, read the answer, and then sanity-check the response you get to make sure it makes sense, all in one tab.
4 Making programming accessible to all
An LLM won't judge your mistakes, but Reddit might
I graduated with a computer science degree and have done a lot of work in data analysis and tool creation, so I consider myself a pretty adept programmer, at least when it comes to Java, Python, and web development. However, the likes of Google Bard and ChatGPT are great research tools when I'm trying to solve a problem.
Tools like these make it easy for me to understand issues and explain concepts as simply as I need them to be. There's no judgment from an LLM even when I'm asking it the same question I've already asked five times, which results in me being a better programmer. I can produce better tools that work more efficiently, and with these LLMs, it's easier than ever for anybody to become a programmer.
5 Information processing
When there's too much text, break it down a little bit
Have you ever faced a large body of text and felt completely overwhelmed by it? I know I have, and others have, too. But you can take text, feed it to an LLM, and ask it to break it down for you. While it may not be entirely accurate, the idea is that it can make it more digestible, so you can then cross-reference it with the original and ensure it's accurate.
By parsing text through LLMs and being careful with the output, you can understand what's being conveyed in an article or large body of text without getting too overwhelmed. I know people who do this with overly wordy university assignments who say that it really helps them, so give it a try!
LLMs won't solve all accessibility-related issues, but they're a massive help
No matter what, LLMs won't solve all accessibility-related problems. They're assistants rather than solutions, and they shouldn't be touted as a fix-all. However, many people with these disabilities find that LLMs help them in many different ways, and these are just some of the most popular ways that I know through friends and the internet that they are helping people today. And with AI becoming more popular than ever on some of the best laptops and even phones like the Google Pixel 8 Pro, these uses will only become more widespread.