A Humanistic Approach to Natural Language Processing and Information Accessibility for theDisabled

Abstract

In the advancing age of technology, providing the disabled(i.e., deaf, blind, learning issue) equal rights to access information remains a challenge. Although the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) has seen many advances in recent years, NLP in communicative assistive technologies demands a more comprehensive, humanistic approach. The purpose of this study is to investigate that NLP technology could be successfully applied to improve the accessibility of information for the disabledby means of the coordination between technological innovation and human needs. The research that is carried out here is qualitative, focusing on a case study approach for the cases of assistive applications based on NLP by having interviews with of users and developers involved in this type of applications. Our results show that although several NLP tools provide strong potential for features (e.g., speech to text, text to speech, and simplified language) for those with hearing, vision, cognitive, and/or reading needs; there are still numerous gaps. These are linguistic biases, lack of adaptability to local languages, and lack of usercentred design. Users stressed the criticality of adaptability, fitforpurpose, and easeofuse to achieve real accessibility. It follows that humancentredness in developing NLP systems, serves to enhance, not only the user experience for the impaired subset, but that this user centred design, contributes to the wider theme of digital inclusivity. It suggests a cocreation approach of multidisciplinary work technologists, disability advocates and linguistsas a first step to build more fashionable and ethical NLPbased tools.