How AI Can Help Boost Disability Inclusion - Ep. 238

Hello, and welcome to the NVIDIA AI podcast. I'm your host, Noah Kravitz. A study released this past July 2024 by the Special Olympics Global Center for Inclusion in Education found that sixty four percent of educators and seventy seven percent of parents of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, IDD as they're known, view artificial intelligence as a potentially powerful mechanism to promote more inclusive classrooms and close educational gaps between students with and without IDD. But only 35% of educators surveyed believe that developers of AI currently account for the needs and priorities of students with IDD, pointing to the need for the creation of more disability inclusive tools. More recently, the g seven held its first ever meeting on disability in Umbria, Italy just a few weeks ago as we record this in October 2024. The event aimed to bring greater attention and action to disability issues globally with a major focus on assistive technology and AI. Our two guests today have been involved in working with AI and the potential of AI in special education for some time now. One of them was involved with a survey I mentioned, and the other led The US delegation to the g seven meeting. And they're here to talk about the potential for using AI in special education and some of the things we need to do to best realize that potential. Sarah Minkara is the special adviser on international disability rights at the US Department of State. Special adviser Minkara leads The United States' comprehensive strategy to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities internationally and across our foreign policy. And doctor Timothy Schreiber is the chairman of the board of Special Olympics, where together with 6,000,000 Special Olympics athletes in more than 200 countries, he works to promote health, education, and a more unified world through the joy of sport. Sarah, Tim, thank you so much for making the time to join the NVIDIA AI podcast. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I covered only just the tip of the iceberg of all the work that you both have been doing throughout your careers and and your lives, to further the cause of of folks with special educational needs, and disabilities. But I only scratched the surface in that intro, and I'd much rather the audience would much rather hear from the both of you. So maybe we can start, and, Sarah, I'll ask you to go first, if you don't mind. Just tell us a little bit about what you do, what you work on, and then we can kind of roll into the whole AI technology part. But let's just start with what you do. Definitely. So my team and I, we lead the US government foreign policy on disability. What does that really mean? You know, as we enter the foreign policy conversations, dialogues where we focus on global peace, security, prosperity, where we focus on trade, economic development, AI, …