How Chat GPT’s new Voice Mode Could Unlock a More Accessible Future.
I’m a big believer in the idea that future technology could be an equaliser for disabled people. There are so many barriers to accessing society in person, and just as many to accessing society online. Over the past 10 years we’ve seen AI models developing at an unprecedented rate, culminating in an AI boom over the last two years as the technology becomes accessible to the masses, and tech companies look to solving the next big problem.
Chat GPT is owned by a company called OpenAI, a mix between non-profit and capped profit, through which it has a strategic multi-billion dollar partnership with Microsoft. Which is why it’s the front runner, up against Google’s own AI, ‘Gemini’, for innovation within Generative AI.
Chat GPT up until now has been a text box and response page, where you type in what you would like it to do, and it responds. Evolutions have included being able to give longer responses, build your own ‘Chat GPT’ that remembers information to provide more personalised responses, search the web and read documents uploaded in seconds and ask questions using a basic voice function.
Their update, GPT-4o advanced voice mode may be the start of what theorists and futurist nerds (myself included!) thought generative AI would be, a voice mode that takes spoken instructions and using text, vision and audio is able to respond quickly in a human voice, with human cadence and simulated emotion, to convey information.
“With GPT-4o, we trained a single new model end-to-end across text, vision, and audio, meaning that all inputs and outputs are processed by the same neural network. Because GPT-4o is our first model combining all of these modalities, we are still just scratching the surface of exploring what the model can do and its limitations.”
This update isn’t just a tech upgrade, it’s a huge step forward for seeing how generative AI such as Chat GPT really has the potential to integrate seamlessly into our day to day lives. For someone who lives with a disability, and faces access barriers to education, society and the workplace on a regular basis, this could be the start of breaking down those barriers.
Moving Beyond the Keyboard
Typing isn’t easy or even possible for many people. Whether it’s someone with a spinal cord injury, arthritis or cognitive impairment, the physical effort of typing can be a huge barrier. With voice control, that barrier is gone. This isn’t just convenience—it’s empowerment, making day-to-day life easier for those who’ve had to work around inaccessible systems for too long. Imagine this system plugged into something like an Alexa or Google Assistant- which were initially developed from technology for the use by disabled people- where the conversations you can now have allow for corrections, continued conversation where the device can recall instructions given throughout the conversation.
The Future?
One of the most exciting parts about voice tech like this is its future potential. Imagine adding video integration where the system can describe documents, presentations and images out loud with added context where typical accessibility may not have been used, like alt text.
This is just the start of what’s possible—this tech could evolve to include tools that assist in everything from business meetings to navigating new spaces. When thinking about the future of work, and what this could mean for disabled people, the goal is to open more doors for more people.
Supporting Neurodivergent People
If you’ve ever tried to use Alexa or Siri and felt frustrated by the strict prompts and repetitive commands, imagine how much harder it can be for someone with a neurodivergent brain. Many people with ADHD, autism, or dyslexia often need things explained in different ways, and mainstream assistants aren’t flexible enough. The latest voice feature can adapt to these needs, making conversations feel more natural and removing the frustration of trying to force communication into narrow boxes. It’s about designing tools that work with people’s strengths instead of expecting everyone to interact the same way.
A Lifeline for Disabled Children
Here’s something else close to my heart: the potential for this technology to help disabled children who have been left out of traditional education. Far too many disabled and neurodivergent children and teenagers aren’t getting the learning support they need. Imagine a voice-controlled system that’s there to provide personalised help and even conversations that adapt based on the person's needs.
This could change everything for children and teenagers who are currently isolated from education systems, giving them a more personalised way to learn and grow, where the teacher can repeat a lesson in lots of different ways, who won’t get impatient or exacerbated, as people figure out their learning style.
Let’s Not Ignore the Challenges
Of course, no tech is without its issues. One thing to be mindful of is that voice tech should support humans, not replace responsibility altogether. I can see that it would be easy for the government to reduce or restrict funding in areas such as SEND provision if they see an easy ‘solution’ is sitting people in front of laptops to learn from third parties. Though lessons are incredibly important, there are many other aspects to education beyond sitting in lessons that schooling is important for- social skills, friendship, home-support, school meals and skill classes such as music, art and drama.
This new update also doesn’t provide live subtitles/ transcription, so D/deaf people are excluded from these conversations. Transcripts are available after the conversation has finished which will be very useful for people to write up minutes, or reference a conversation which will be very helpful! But by this stage it’s not useful for D/deaf disabled people- I’d imagine that live transcription of the responses could be something toggled on and off as a feature easily enough. (Remember, not all D/deaf people have 100% hearing loss!)
We also need to make sure that the data behind this AI isn’t biassed—because any bias can lead to exclusion, and, even more worryingly, decisions that impact real people and have very real life consequences. We’re already seeing this in how HR AI technology is sifting out disabled and neurodivergent applicants before a human is involved in the process. You can read more about the for and against argument in my blog ‘AI: Disabled People’s Friend or Foe?’ here.
There are many other very much needed conversations happening around how AI is evolving, including the fear of replacing ‘humans’. As these systems create very realistic human voices as an integral part of their response, this conversation is highlighted even further. We have an unconscious habit as humans to anthropomorphize things that we know not to be human, but form those bonds and connections anyway. Loneliness is a huge issue for many communities of people, especially for disabled people, and though this tool could look to support this by providing a ‘human’ connection, it fails to address and fix the underlying issue.
Final Thoughts
This voice feature is only the beginning, but its potential is already clear. Whether you’re someone who finds traditional input methods challenging or an organisation looking to make your workplace more inclusive, this update is a game-changer. It’s innovations like this that move us towards a more accessible world for everyone.
And as someone who’s deeply embedded in this space—both as a professional and someone with lived experience—I’m confident that AI, when used thoughtfully, can continue to remove barriers and create opportunities that didn’t exist before. We just need to make sure that disabled people are part of the development and user experience of this technology, and that we’re building a positive bias to these systems. Positive bias and the data being uploaded and used is a massive conversation in of itself, but not a separate conversation- these are all needed in the development of AI policy and law throughout the world, and how the companies building this technology are staying accountable.
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