No one really thinks about the accessibility of services until you are placed in a position in which you require them.

For a couple of weeks and over the course of a whole weekend, I could not really move my wrist. I think this is due to the fact that I probably spend too many hours a day in front of my computer, but that is not the focus. My attention points towards those 48 hours in which I had rather restricted mobility on my hand.

As I wanted to engage in my usual entertainment (videogames), I reflected on the general difficulty that individuals with limited mobility face and how access to technological services may make the load easier to bear.

To my surprise I discovered that MS Word has a rather accurate dictation function, for example, which is quite useful in these cases. I found also that my AI of preference also has a similar option, and I’m quite certain many of the competitors do so too.

It became easier to understand when my boss expressed appreciation for how technology allows people to level the playing field in what would otherwise be difficult conditions.

People suffering from dyslexia, for instance, might greatly benefit from AI models reordering the content as they desire to express, but these functions also benefit other users in exceptional situations to find answers in real-time with minimal input from my computer.

Now bear in mind that I was only temporarily diminished in my capacity to complete normal actions. But what if this was permanent?  

I have to say this made me reflect upon and become even less accepting of restricting policies demanding that students submit full drafts of ideas simply because the base assumption is that everyone is going to cheat with AI, and that everyone is too dumb to learn anything by reading.

These policies, which seem designed to protect educational institutions, are, in fact, making it harder for people to be open and honest about their use of tools. We cannot just go around pretending that no one knows anything; at some point, we have to simply face the fact that the tools are there and are going to be utilized.

One other thing we might have to accept is the inadequacy of some educators to control the content that is being produced, more related to the competence of the personnel than actual fears of cheating.

As it tends to be, the problem is not necessarily the tools and potential uses, just a combination of the morals of the users and the compromise of the educators. I would recommend trying to spend at least a day having only one hand, you might suddenly discover technological progress is more of a friend than you think.