A new white paper from the Stanford Accelerator for Learning highlights how artificial intelligence (AI) can be a powerful tool to support students with learning differences — but only if it is developed with their needs and voices at the center.
The report, “AI + Learning Differences: Designing a Future with No Boundaries,” is the result of a two-day Working Symposium and Hackathon hosted by the Accelerator that brought together more than 100 students, educators, researchers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, education industry leaders, and philanthropists. Participants, including many individuals with learning differences, spent the first day of the event engaging in collaborative dialogue on AI and learning differences and the second day designing and testing innovative new tools.
The conversations and hacking sessions at the symposium were grounded in the disability rights principle, “nothing about us without us,” emphasizing the importance of including people with lived experience in the design of emerging technologies. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into education and everyday life, participants reflected on the assumptions being built into AI systems and who is being prioritized—or overlooked—in their development.
Discussions explored how AI could better support learners with differences, including helping identify where students may need additional support, enhancing assistive technologies, and improving the development and implementation of Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Participants also explored how AI might impact students’ social and emotional well-being, and whether it can be designed to recognize and value the full spectrum of human intelligence, even when it doesn’t conform to traditional academic norms.
The paper, released on July 21, synthesizes the outcomes of the symposium and hackathon, presenting a vision of inclusion in an AI-infused world. It lays out 12 recommendations for developers, educators, researchers, and policymakers to ensure that AI systems equitably serve learners of all abilities.
“Empathy and access must not be afterthoughts,” said Elizabeth Kozleski, co-author and faculty co-director of the Accelerator’s Learning Differences Initiative. “This paper outlines how AI can be developed and deployed in ways that recognize the needs of all learners.”
