You’ve probably been reading and hearing about the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, which was launched last year by OpenAI, an AI research and deployment company. The writing tool interacts in a way that’s uncannily conversational so that, for instance, it can admit mistakes and reject “inappropriate” requests. It can also write a pretty decent school paper, though how decent is a matter of debate.
In fact, the text produced by ChatGPT can be “flat-out wrong,” as USAToday notes, and it seems to be especially problematic when it comes to math. (USAToday has a good ChatGPT primer.) Additionally, there are documented issues with answers being biased against people of color and women (a problem with AI in general).
Schools nationwide have been banning the tool, including in New York City. In early January, the NYC Department of Education blocked access to ChatGPT on school devices and networks, although reportedly it’s already rethinking that ban. In Westchester, there seems to be no uniform decision as to the use of ChatGPT. The Blind Brook-Rye School District, for instance, has no ChatGPT ban, according to the superintendent’s office, while the Katonah – Lewisboro School District is in talks about it, according to a teacher who works there.
An intriguing question is whether ChatGPT can be used to help those with disabilities. Here are some articles exploring this topic:
U.S. News and World Report’s ChatGPT in Classrooms: What to Know, which points out that ChatGPT can fix spelling and grammar errors and give feedback on writing, spoke with Shana Ramin, a technology integration specialist with Oakland Schools in Michigan. Ramin says the tool “can be used to pare down difficult passages for lower reading levels, one of many ways the tool can help English language learners or students with learning disabilities. It can also provide sentence starters or help generate ideas for students who struggle to do so on their own.”
Newsnation’s article “ChatGPT ‘levels playing field’ for people with disabilities” notes, among other things, that “within the disability community, the chatbot’s free and open-source nature has generated a lot of hope and excitement — particularly that this new technology gives people the ability to overcome barriers independently. Looking ahead to the teen years, that could mean help writing a resume and cover letter, or asking for advice on how to talk to a girlfriend.”
The Conversation has this interesting piece from three university professors in Sydney, Australia: “Will AI tech like ChatGPT improve inclusion for people with communication disability?” It notes that it could “help people with communication disability and others who struggle with text, and could also significantly enhance rate of communication. People using speech-generating devices are often limited to laboriously entering a mere 10 words per minute with word prediction only increasing that to 12-18 words per minute.”
Also, it could be “more inclusive of diversity by being able to understand poorly written commands or sentences with several grammar or spelling errors.”
Here are some other, more general, articles you might find of interest:
Chatbots Got Big—and Their Ethical Red Flags Got Bigger (Wired)
Cheaters beware: ChatGPT maker releases AI detection tool (AP)
Don’t Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It. (The New York Times)
Navigating the Risks and Rewards of ChatGPT (Teachers College)
ChatGPT Is Coming for Classrooms. Don’t Panic (Wired)
Here are a collection of links from around the web for the week ending Friday, Feb. 10, 2023.
‘I Am a Hollywood Actor with Down Syndrome’ (Newsweek)
How Educators Secretly Remove Students With Disabilities From School (The New York Times)
Disability-Focused Proms Expected To Draw Thousands (Disability Scoop)
Thousands of New York kids are missing from school. Where did they go? (Times Union)
Searching for Struggling Readers, One School at a Time (The New York Times)
Why Disability Justice Is Crucial for Liberation (The Nation)
How the Recording Academy, RAMPD Expanded Accessibility and Disability Inclusion for the Grammys’ L.A. Return (The Hollywood Reporter)
Love art? On the first weekend of the month, the Queens Museum welcomes teens (ages 13+) and adults with disabilities and their families to visit from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. for art-making and gallery exploration, guided by museum educators. Each month explores a new theme and art activities.
Also, children with disabilities aged 8 to 12 can go the first weekend of the month from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to the Museum Explorer’s Program.
Get the details here.
Know Before You Go (heads-up, you need to plan in advance!)
Photo by Leo Chiou, Creative Commons
The INCLUDEnyc Fair, which Include NYC calls the largest annual fair for young people with disabilities, is a place to virtually connect with summer camps, recreational programs, supports, and services.
Date: Feb. 11, 2023
Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
It’s being offered in English and Spanish, and allows attendees the chance to speak with representatives using chat audio or video. Virtual booths will be available for browsing.
INCLUDEnyc, headquartered in New York City, has a mission to promote positive futures and enhance the quality of life for New York City children and youth with disabilities, ages birth through 26, and their families.
Register here.
Image by Storyset on Freepix
Image: Creative Commons
The annual, two-day Legislative & Advocacy Forum, organized by New York Alliance and The Arc New York, being held Feb. 13-14, is designed to give not-for-profit agencies, parents and family members, self-advocates and direct support professionals access to information on legislation, the Executive Budget and State leadership.
One of the more critical issues is getting Direct Service Providers the pay they deserve. While advocates have been hoping for an 8.5% Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA), Gov. Kathy Hochul came back with a budget that included a disastrous 2.5% COLA for DSPs.
The program, being held in the Hart Lounge in the Egg (the city’s performing arts venue), starts out with Kerri Neifeld, commissioner, New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD), presenting OPWDD policy, legislative and state budget priorities for 2023. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, so check out the link.
Additionally, don’t forget what you can do to get your voice heard. Join a rally being held on Feb. 13 in Albany and make some noise! Read more about the rally here.
Photo: Nitant Patel
The Community Support Network at Westchester Institute for Human Development has an excellent program, Hear Our Voices, aimed at empowering, educating and developing social connections for self-advocates. Its educational programming explores relevant topics for advocacy, and in doing so teaches those with I/DD how to become leaders and make the changes they need.
The group meets monthly, and its next Zoom promises to be a special event. The speaker is Kate Meltzer, director of operations and a case manager at Future Centered Care, a concierge social work company supporting adults with I/DD.
Date: Feb. 22, 2023
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Link to register.
The president of Hear Our Voices, Brendan Klein, is straight-out awesome. Coordinator of Self Advocacy & Community Engagement at WIHD, he engages and empowers his peers in integrated community service projects and inclusive social opportunities. He also uses his social media/tech/video skills and personal outreach to help connect young people with disabilities to each other in ways that are innovative and unique to the special needs community.
Image: FreepixSave
The New York State Library’s upcoming public programs include a Feb. 24 online presentation on “the debates over the use of aversive interventions (such as electric shock) like the ones used at the Massachusetts-based Judge Rotenberg Center.”
The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center is the last school in the U.S. to use electric shock treatment, according to masslive.com. The school says its population consists of “emotionally disturbed students with conduct, behavior, emotional, and/or psychiatric problems, as well as those with intellectual disabilities or on the autism spectrum.”
The library’s announcement notes that “there are families who believe deeply in the need to use aversives to control their children’s behavior. There are others who believe the techniques used are torture. The overwhelming majority of these families have children who have been excluded from numerous educational and treatment programs because of their behaviors.”
You can learn more about the event and register here.
Photo: Matt H. Wade
Records obtained by the Times Union show that staff at New York schools serving children with disabilities “intentionally misused physical restraints on students.”
The Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs, a state agency that investigates allegations of mistreatment, “substantiated 214 such cases between 2016 and 2021,” the paper reports. “The center classifies these encounters as a form of abuse.”
Michael Rozalski, a professor at SUNY Geneseo who studies restraint techniques, told the Times Union that those cases are likely the “tip of the iceberg.”
Read the entire article here. It’s a thorough and important look at the practice.
Seclusion and physical restraint are sometimes used as a way of preventing students from hurting themselves, other children or school staff members. Many students, however, are not able to communicate with caregivers about what happened to them during the day, which means families are uninformed about the use of these practices.
To help counter this, New York State last summer passed a new law that requires same-day notification of a parent or guardian of a student with a disability where certain behavioral interventions are used.
Image: Freepix.com
If you’re not familiar with Rebecca Seawright, the new chair of the New York State Assembly People with Disabilities Committee, amNY has a spotlight that serves as a decent intro.
First elected in 2014 to represent the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island in the state Assembly, this is Seawright’s fifth term in office. She says she wants to “dive into” the NYS Office of People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) recently released five-year strategic plan and that she’s “committed to pushing for wage enhancement and increasing hourly pay. I will drive this point home among my legislative colleague.”
FYI, members of the committee are:
In the NYS Senate, Sen. John W. Mannion, in office since 2020, chairs its Committee on Disabilities. Its members are:
In other news, in February 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the establishment of the Office of the Chief Disability Officer to advocate on behalf of persons with disabilities and appointed Kimberly T. Hill as the State’s first Chief Disability Office.
Hill previously served as Director of the Assembly Task Force on People with Disabilities, which focused on issues pertaining primarily to people with physical and sensory disabilities. In that role, Hill worked with disability advocates, Assembly Chairpersons and staff on several priority issues which led to the passage of bills such as the Most Integrated Setting Coordinating Council (MISCC), the Nursing Facility Transition and Diversion Waiver, New York State’s Medicaid Buy-In Program, and the codification of Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into State law.