The best thing I read today: How Robots Can Assist Students With Disabilities

While doing research for a school project, I stumbled upon the best thing I read this week; An article from the New York Times titled "How Robots Can Assist Students With Disabilities."

I found it while researching how schools have responded to recent AI advancements. I immediately was interested, as it's not an aspect of the AI revolution that I had considered before.

The opening instantly hooked me, as it has immediate examples of how AI is currently being used to help people with disabilities such as teaching children with autism social skills, assisting the deaf with transcription, and more.

The part I found most interesting was about a robot that can help children with autism learn "theory of mind" skills, which is the ability to imagine what other people are thinking or feeling. Autistic children frequently struggle with these skills.

AI and robots can respond to different children on an individual level, depending on their age and skills. Children with disabilities have been shown to respond to these robots in ways that they don't respond to puppets, people, or computer programs.

I appreciated the authors comprehensive glimpse into how this new technology is positively affecting the lives of those with disabilities, and how it can continue to improve them as the technology progresses.

It's often easy to forget how certain topics affect those with disabilities. When I started researching this project I didn't know I'd stumble upon an article about those with disabilities, and it's something I hadn't considered and wouldn't have otherwise.