From Education to Economic Participation: Redesigning Transition Pathways for Persons with Disabilities in the Era of Artificial Intelligence (COSP19 Side Event)

Sam.
Excellencies, distinguish delegates.
Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
It's my great pleasure to welcome you to the side event held in conjunction with the Conference of S states of Parties, state parties to the Convention on the right of the P with Disabilities cusps, entitled from Education to Economic Participation.
Reducing Transition pathways for P with disabilities and Age of Artificial Intelligence.
Today's discussions focus on a critical policy and development challenges that goes beyond ensuring access to education or provision of support services.
It concern the in text to which our system, institution and labor markets are equipped to enable persons with disability to successfully transition into meaningful productivity and suitable economic participation.
As artificial intelligence going continues to transform the future of work, It present both unpresentable opportunities and important challenges.
This requires us to rethink traditional transition pathways and decision more inclusive models that empower persons with disabilities, to fully contribute to and benefit from economic and social development.
My name is Shahina Sorety Director of Communication and Media in the Nur Center.
The state of Qatar.
It's my honor to serve this session as a moderator to facilitate more engagement dialogue, I will continue this session in Arabic.
For our distinguished guests who wish to continue this session in English, please use the interpretation devices.
Thank you for your joining us today.
Sahims name of God, the merciful, the compassionate.
Peace and God's blessings be upon all of you.
Let me express our thanks and gratitude to the Qatar Social Services, which is enjoys status on the permanent mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations in New York for organizing this side event.
We also express our thanks to our partners, the ILO, Cities Center and the Arab Organization for People with Disabilities.
Thanks for participating in this session.
Allow me now to welcome our distinguished guests.
Her Excellency, misses Hana About, Minister of Social Development in the Arab Republic of Syria.
Her Excellency Ha, Assistant Secretary-General of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Entrepreneur of the United Arab Emirates and and misses Zara Sj, the Director of Sedric, the former minister on the State of Turkey.
I would Mr.
Nath Gaba, chairman of IDA and the Chairman of the Arab Organization for People with Disability, one of the leading organizations in defending the rights of Mr.
Michel Abdallah Name Center for the Blindder which lead national important national interests in helping families with people with disabilities and participants in this fraternity MI, director of the director of Shia Center for Persons with Disabilities helps people with disabilities to attain independent living.
Mr.
Mohammed Motlak especially the Braille training specialist who had the practical notable practical experience in helping people with the blind, misses Mie Abdullah among coordinator of training and technical cooperation in CSR in organizing cooperation between members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the representative of the Is of War, which plays a key role in facilitating work that include inclusion of people with disabilities in the labor market.
Also, doctor Victor Penda, President of the World enabled President of Global Alliance on Accessible Technologies and Environmental for all.
We also welcome all the distinguished participants, representative of the United States, representative of academic institutions international organizations, social society members who are on inclusive development, and we hope that we will exchange views from education to economic participation of people with disabilities at the age of artificial intelligence.
Before we start, I would like to mention that we have 60 minutes and includes opening statements and the intervention of the panelists or our Mint and every individual who wishes to participate.
Now, allow me to call on His Excellcy doctor Nov Kava, President of the International Federation for International Alliance for the disabled.
Do you have the floor.
Thank you, Mr.
Shahin.
Excellencies.
Let me start by thanking the Catal Minister for organizing this event.
I'm so glad and proud to be with you today.
This subject is of vital importance that we need to address as soon as possible.
Let me start by the assumption to say that all the educational system and places of work that we know traditionally today will be totally vanish within a decade.
We're going to a completely total new system affecting our society, our life, our values, and the way things are organized in society.
Based on this assumption, I'm going to focus today on the question of disability and artificial intelligence, a subject that we're starting to give it lots of attention and focus because this is what we're going to face in the coming future, and this is where we're going to adapt our life accordingly.
Excellencies, it is an honor to address you today on this subject and start to say to you, we are living through a technological transformation unlike any we have witnessed before.
We witnessed the different kind of revolution during the last decade.
If you look at the 20th century, we pass through different things, electronic age, and then we get the communication revolution, and then we get the Internet and so on.
Through this, you have seen how much our life has changed trust.
But the main difference in all the changes that took place during the 20th century, the human beings are on control of this change and the one who producing it.
With artificial intelligence, for the first time, we have something that humans have produced, but they're going to be independent agent.
Working on their own, developing their own system, their own thinking, and with much more advanced intelligence.
Just imagine where we are going.
Based on this, I would say that artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how we communicate, learn, work, access services, and participate in society.
Decision that once dependent on human judgment are increasingly influential by algorithm, automated system, and machine learning technologies.
For person with diabetes, this transformation presents both extraordinary opportunities and significant risk.
On one hand, AI has the potential to become one of the most powerful tools for inclusion ever created.
It can enable real time captioning for deaf and hard of hearing person.
Intelligent navigation system for blind and partially sighted persons, personalized learning platform for students with disabilities and communication technologies that expand participation and independence for millions of people around the world.
I will add further, if I'm going to believe on mask, then within one year, every blind person in the world are going to see and everyone with spinal cord injury like myself is going to walk.
I'm counting the time.
AI can help remove barriers that have excluded persons with disability for generations.
It can open doors to education, employment, healthcare, civic engagement, and social participation.
If designed inclusively, AI can become a power force for equality.
However, Technology is never neutral.
Artificial intelligence systems learn from data and data often reflect existing inequalities and biases.
If person's disability are absent from datasets, excluded from design processes, or ignored in policy discussion, AI risk reproducing and amplifying discrimination on an unprecedented scale.
Inaccessible building exclude hundreds of people, and inacceptible algorithm can exclude millions.
If recruitment system are trained on historical pattern of exclusion, qualified person visibility may be denied employment opportunities.
If digital services are not designed with accessibility in mind, personal visibility may find themselves locked out of essential services.
If AI system are developed without meaningful participation and personsability, the future may be built without us.
This is why the principle of nothing about us remain as relatively today as ever.
Percevisability must not be passive recipient of chronological innovation.
We must be active participant in shaping it.
We must be present in research laboratories, technological companies, universities, policy making bodies, and international forum where decision about AI are being made.
The future of artificial intelligence must be grounded in human rights.
The Convention on the right of P visability provides a clear framework for ensuring that innovation advance equality, cdity, autonomy, and participation.
Human rights and technological progress are not competing.
Human rights are not competed items.
Well, I must it.
A Okay.
The convention, I got it.
They are mutually reinforcing foundation of sustainable development.
As government and international organizations develop AI governance framework, disability inclusion must not be treated as an afterthought.
Accessibility, universal design, and participation must be embedded from the beginning.
The question before us is not simply whether AI will transform society, it certainly will.
The real question is whether that transformation will include everyone.
Will AI create new opportunities for participation or new forms of exclusion? Will it expand the human rights or deepen existing inequalities? Will it recognize the diversity of humanity or narrow the definition of who matters? The answers depend on the choices we make today.
So let us work together to ensure that artificial intelligence serve all people, including more than 1 billion person with ability to worldwide.
Now, I have to tell you that through artificial intelligent development, I would expect many countries to vanish in the coming future if they are not up to date with what's going on with the technology and development.
The same story would go with us.
If we are outside the design, work, research on artificial intelligence, 1 billion people will be also vanish and set a site.
Thank you very much.
Skeen, doctor Nawa Al.
Thank you very much, doctor Kayah for these nice words and inspiring speech.
Now I'd like to give the floor to Mr.
Michel Noemi, Executive Director, Al Nour Center for the Blind to deliver his speech in the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful.
Your Excellency, dear colleagues, God's peace and blessings be with you.
I am privileged to welcome you in this important side event, which comes at a pivotal stage in which the world witnesses important changes in education and other fields.
We are pleased that this event comes under the Carter Foundation for Social Work Lead.
Foundation, which enables the different categories of society through an integrated system in the social services.
The Cary Foundation contains nine centers in the field of social development, empowerment, nor for the blind, for those people with disability, social rehabilitation, OFAC, for family consultation assent.
For caring for the elderly Nara, to uplift development work, as well as for the orphans and center for Cana.
It offers employment and social services to the targeted groups in addition to the societal services, part of the foundation which work as an integral part to achieve societal empowerment.
Sefel and E Nour Center for Blind are specialized two centers in the field of disabilities.
They render education, training, and empowerment services to people with disabilities to achieve their active participation in the workplace and society and Lenore Center for the Blind, we look at AI and digital services as part of an integrated system designed to improve training and increase employment for those people who are blind.
From this perspective, we are trying to improve the smart systems in the rehabilitation field in a way to achieve facility of access to information and to fulfill the requisites of workplace.
Real employment requires link between the work opportunities, education and training so much so that the person with disability can achieve active participation society.
Over the years, international efforts focused on the need for access to education to persons with disabilities.
This is fundamental with the approach of the 20th anniversary of the CRPD.
It is necessary to pose a deeper question whether these tracks have managed to achieve sustainable economic independence.
As a matter of fact, many persons with disabilities, despite their acquiring education and training, they are facing real hardships and engaging in active economic activities.
This is related to the design of the systems themselves.
In many cases We deal with employment, rehabilitation, education as separate fields.
As a matter of fact, reality in life is different.
The person does not move from education to work.
Rather, he needs a continuous and progressive course that guarantees independence.
Hence, our vision, the real challenge is not preparing persons to adapt to the systems rather redesigning the systems to absorb human variety.
AI opens up new opportunities that should be looked at realistically.
AI is not a magic formula, and it cannot substitute the real rehabilitation and human input.
It is a real tool.
It is a good tool when it is used correctly.
Through streamling the task is supporting the individual efforts, as well as narrowing the gaps that impede economic participation.
Technology should be evaluated by enhancing the dignity of man and his real participation society.
We are in need of scalable participation and international theories that help build more sustainable systems.
In conclusion, we hope that this side event will help us exchange experience and strengthen the rights of persons with disabilities and full participation in socioeconomic life.
I would like to thank all of you for your presence and I'm looking forward to fruitful discussions.
God's peace and blessings be on you.
Thank you, Mr.
Michel, for this valuable speech.
And now we would like to engage in the dialogue.
There are 6 minutes for each participant and a question will be posed and the answer will be coming The main part of the session, we will listen to a variety of experiences on changing from education to real participation for persons with disabilities, particularly in light of the AI.
I would like to welcome misses Fatma Tamimi, Director of Family Support and Psychological Counseling Department, Chafela Center for Persons with Disabilities.
From your experience in supporting the family and persons with disabilities, how can AI back more transitional, more effective moves from education to employing those people with disabilities? Autism, Thank you for the question.
First thing, I would like to say that AI can achieve a real transition from education to employment.
The conventional trend from individual tracks that adapt to the needs of each person.
With regard to persons with mental and autism disabilities, AI can help the professional and professional activities, and it will allocate the educational field and link the persons with the suitable employment, and this will help them tap sustainable work opportunities.
Technology itself is not enough.
AI should be.
Yeah.
Applied correctly and persons with disabilities, stakeholders and employers must take part on that.
Safel we look at AI not as a substitute for the support system, but a system that makes it more flexible and more adaptable to the needs.
AI should help taking human decisions not as a replacement, and when it is used comprehensively and responsibly, it should support the economic participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities.
Thank you, miss Fatma for these nice words.
Now, I'd like to listen to misses Hina Abood, Minister for Work Affairs in Syria Sabi we are in a transition period.
Difficult, painful 14 years.
The percentage of people with disabilities and victims of this seven years, all the new ideas that we can move from education to employment.
If we want to create stability in our countries, and we receive in real peace, there must be education and there must be employment.
Nobody should be outside this context and admire those from the United Arab Emirates who have the will.
We are the ones that are suffering, but we learn from you, from our neighbors and our brothers, the Arabs, Employment is the key to stability for the future.
27% of the Syrian people cannot remain without jobs.
This leads to instability.
Since we started with the state in the ministry, we thought that nobody should be left behind.
In our new vision, they can all participate all the meetings.
We have signed language.
We try to mobilize all our colleagues that when they work, there must be some all qualified so that people with disabilities have access.
We do everything possible we learn from you.
This exchange of experiences is important without our colleague, our dear colleague.
Who came to us once or twice to help us to learn from experience, experience, the stages of transition.
We learn from colleagues and please be patient with us because we are passing through a difficult stage and as much as we look forward to your ambitions and hope, we believe that there is nothing impossible, there is nothing difficult and I thank you for hosting us We are the ones to thank you, Your Excellency, especially your presence with us and enriching us with these kind words.
We are with the Syrian Republic, with all our hearts, all the Arab and Muslim countries, all countries of the world stand united with Syria and to people with disabilities, whether they be inferior or moderate speakers, M to the experience, practical experience from the state of Qatar is the bread training specialist at a new center for the blind in Qatar How can the solutions supported by AI to distribute employment chances? Thank you, brother Shahin.
I will switch to English.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues Sk Mahhaarkta.
Throughout my field of experience in the training and rehabilitation of people with disabilities, I believe one of the most important topics we should discuss today is how we understand artificial intelligence, AI.
And how we integrate it into education, rehabilitation and employment pathways.
Very often when AI is mentioned, people immediately think applications such as GBT, Gemini, or chatbot, which is not.
In reality, AI is much broader and more sophisticated than that.
Today, AI is integrated into the thing we use now.
Image and text recognition systems, speech to text and text to speech technologies, intelligence navigation system, or people who are blind for visually impaired.
Job performance analysis tools, real time translation systems, which I see some of my friends here using it.
Training needs prediction and assessment, the design of flexible and inclusive work environments, and even the simplification of complex tactics.
At the New Center for the blind, we are actively working to integrate artificial intelligence and assessive technology into our educational rehabilitation and training services.
AI powered are used to describe images and visual content for visuals who are blind or visually impaired.
Convert text and images into speech or braille, which is a braille display of brail text and support independent learning mobility.
People don't know that.
We use technology and mobility too when we have navigation.
BMI, CNAI we use a lot of information for that.
We have some tools for cane, some intelligence cane that they have Bluetooth.
Some of them you can actually give them the address and they will guide you to, but that doesn't mean we can use them immediately.
We have to have the skills for it first.
And also access to information more efficiently and accurately.
Now, we are also working to incorporate these technologies into vocational training and rehabilitation programs to enhance independence and increase educational and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
It is equally important to distinguish between artificial intelligence and the smart software.
The smart software, we use them for a long time right now.
AI is going to the field in different directions, and we can use AI the way we want to help our clients and support them.
Assive technology that have existed for many years.
They've been there for a long time.
We use them for a while.
Some of them, they have some enhancement, which is good, and now they integrate AI into them and we need to know how we can use them for people with disabilities, especially with visual impairment and blind.
This is what we do in the North Center for the blind.
Within the disability field, we have long utilized technologies.
I know you may have heard about OCRs, which is recognition, voice to text and they can actually screen readers.
So the difference today is that AI is no longer a static tool that simply execute redefined commands.
It can learn, recognize pattern, adapt to users, and personalized content and training based on individual abilities and actual needs.
For example, if you use ChtGBT for Arabibril, they cannot help you.
The reason why because there is no much data in Arabic language in it.
Technically, if you use it in English, you are in a good hands.
But if you try to use it in Arabic, there is none.
That's why we sit and we train that chat for a long time to learn how to use Arabic bral so we can actually train it.
This brings us to what is considered fundamental point.
We should not separate education, training, and employment.
Unfortunately, many system will treat these stages as independent from one another.
Most of the time we have the training first, then you learn the skills, then you go to job readiness, then you go look for a job.
Then when you go to look for a job and many of us who went to college will know that.
You go to college, you get your degree.
The first thing they tell you, don't think you can use your degree to go to work immediately.
What I was doing for four years, we're just preparing you.
But when you go to your job, they said, Okay, forgot what you learned.
We're going to train you now.
You spend six to a year or two years just to learn the new job.
If we can integrate the three of them from the beginning, and that's why we have vocational rehabilitation services.
You have the student or the client from the beginning.
What is your direction? What do you want to be and keep asking these questions.
Then after that, when he said, I want to be a lawyer, good.
To be a lawyer, you need to understand how to communicate.
You need to know what is the qualification to be a lawyer? What is the degree? How do you go to college? Then you put it all in his mind from the beginning.
When he graduate from your centers to college, Job readiness is already knows what's going on.
That's what actually do the United States what they do most of the time.
That's what they call it job readiness, which is very important because most of the time we forgot about the job until we finish everything.
Then at the end, I forgot to ask you where you want to be.
I've spent ten, 15, 20 years with you and now you're asking where I want to be.
It should be from the beginning so we can integrate all the information together.
So if a student wishes to pursue a career in design, customer service, programming, training, media, or any other fields, there should be an integrated system from the outset that connects academic skills and even living and life skills, a practical and vocational training, assistive technology, real, real world work experience.
Because most of the time people have this fantasy idea about work, but when they faced with reality, you see most of the time they will go back like, I cannot do it why because I didn't know it's going to be like this.
From the beginning, we can have job shadows and we take them to the places they want to work at.
For example, I want to work for the Ministry of Defense.
Let's go there.
You can take them to these places, see what they do and how they work.
What is recommendations for you.
Then when they come outside, you can ask them, what do you think right now? Do you still want to do this? He's like, yes, I want to do it.
Okay, then this is a recommendation, this is a requirement for it.
Sorry about that.
I will finish here.
However, the success of all this innovation depends on the existence of comprehensive vision.
We need to have the right vision from the beginning.
With a education, continuous through meaningful rehabilitation and skills development and ultimately leads to economic participation, independence, and full inclusion in society.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Mohamed, for this valuable intervention and a thoroughgoing response to the query that was inclusive We move to the international and regional dimension, misses Miha Abdullah, In coordinator of training and technical cooperation.
Sir, through your work with OIC members, what are the efforts deployed by OIC to promote economic inclusion of persons with disabilities? Thank you very much, Mr.
Rashahin in the name of the compassionate, the merciful, God's peace and blessings be on you on behalf of Cesar.
The Statistical Economic and Social Research and Training Center for Islamic countries.
I would like to mention some inputs and efforts by the center.
I would like also to share with you some of the good practices on the use of digital digital transformation.
I would like to extend our sincere thanks to the co coordinators, the permanent mission of Qatar and the Qatar Foundation.
Time is of the essence and I'd like to be very brief and I will be glad to answer any question in Arabic or in English.
At the outset, I would like to mention some data on the situation of persons with disabilities globally and OIC in analyzing the formation, 1.3 billion people are suffering from one part of disability.
One of six persons is living with disability.
These are disturbing statistics when we take into consideration that 80% of those people live in the developing countries, including countries of OIC.
Disability is an impediment to many persons throughout the world.
It prevents them from accessing education and work as well as full participation in their societies, including social activities globally.
International initiatives and campaigns have been launched such as the CRPD, as well as strategies inside OIC countries to face these countries.
The Ministerial Conference on social development is the main pillar that deals with the affairs of PWD, as well as the elderly and family affairs.
The second social conference held in Cairn 2023 under the motto of social justice, this urged intensification of cooperation on this score.
It depends on the adoption of the plan of action of OIC.
CSRC is the main party that prepared this plan of action at the level of the organization.
This document is a structural framework to specify the dimensions of PWDs and the member states.
I will focus on the main strategy, particularly two main points.
Before I do that, I wish to mention also that there are frameworks by OIC that to correlate with these efforts, the work market of OC and the youth organization, the plan of action of OC to promote women and the strategic program of action in the field of health.
I am proud that CSRic is one of the main pillars in preparing these reports.
These documents discuss a variety of efforts, caring for the PWDs, employing the youth, et cetera These frameworks emphasize the need to increase social security as well as assistive assistive services and the participation of PWDs in social life.
I would like to dwell on the work of OIC for PWC.
It contains six points.
Education and economic inclusion is one of these six points.
First of all, education, many PWDs are not in schools.
In addition to being disabled, they do not enjoy education opportunities in many developing countries as well as some of our members.
Most of our states should reconsider the educational requirements which are changing for PWDs and those PWDs should be supplied with the necessary u requirements and efforts and this requires allocating additional financial funds to uplift and upgrade the education programs.
In addition to education, I would like briefly to touch on the economic situation as part of this document.
I would like to shed light on the following PWDs are on the rise with the pass of time given the increasing life span and the development witnessed in OIC members and some of our countries started to face financial pressures because of that.
On the other hand, we know that those persons can tangibly contribute to socioeconomic development through participation and work place if they have the right opportunities, active participation, of course, will achieve their socioeconomic welfare.
1 minute.
I would like to clarify that this document exists on the csc link and we can study the detailed points about the steps to be taken by OIC members to enhance these two fields.
In conclusion, I would like to say that Cis center, one of the main action is training among the OIC countries and we follow the South Kore cooperation.
As her Excellency mentioned, the needs of Syria and other countries.
We are pleased to share the experiences of the states that achieved development with the other states that need these activities.
Thank you very much and God's peace and blessings be with you.
Thank you very much, misses Miha.
Dorvin Mum, Aja Musar.
Ran, Ra and Shah, Al Hadith and Nenkal Al-Assad Am, and Al Kariimd Yasin Satmar, Tekarl Musar, Mahil Ira Aatlazim, Livman Smush Agafil Amal and Nas.
Mr.
Schran, Excellency.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr.
Lahman Rahim, let me start obviously by acknowledging the growing partnership between the Qatar Social Work Foundation and its member organizations in advancing economic inclusion and entrepreneurship opportunities.
But having listened to the conversation so far, I certainly couldn't agree more with the education, skills, and job readiness agenda, with the inclusion and equity agenda.
What the Madam Minister mentioned in terms of the centrality of employment and leaving no one behind, but also in supporting countries Build Back Better.
Obviously, the discussion we're having today on the impact of AI, particularly in the world of work has been high on the agenda for the ILO for many years.
We have published a recent report, but also various reports in conjunction with various institutions on the impact of AI in the world of work.
We've established an artificial intelligence observatory for the UN system which has organized among others a number of webinars and talks with top experts to try to ensure that we engender this issue in the UN Common system in support of member states, in support of our triparte members.
We've just recently published a report from the ILO's Director General, which has focused on artificial intelligence, and this report has been presented in the International Labor Conference, which is taking place as we speak.
The report refers to a policy brief that was published last year, focuses on AI and particularly on the employment of persons with disabilities.
Within the framework of the Ilo Global Business and Disability Network, We have addressed the issue of AI for a number of years.
The initial focus was the concern, which is obviously still relevant today, that AI based recruitment software would discriminate against many persons with disabilities.
For example, persons with facial disfigurement, autistic and persons with visual impairment, certainly would not interact with a camera in the expected way and would often be excluded from recruitment processes.
Another concern which we've raised in the context of women is the overrepresentation of persons with disabilities in those jobs that are more at risk of automation on a more Positive note, we have seen many examples of persons with disabilities, including those self identifying as neurodivergent, who have shared the positive impact that many of the AI based tools have had on their employment opportunities.
Tools that provide automatic captioning, for example, tools that summarize long task texts, whether those are the chat bots that we spoke about earlier, tools that support editing, tools that obviously certainly support a lot of the work that's carried out to name a few.
Which are useful for everybody, but especially useful for persons with disabilities.
As we've noted in our Director General's report, it will depend obviously on all of stakeholders to ensure that we make the most of the opportunities provided by AI and certainly limit the challenges.
This also applies to the impact of artificial intelligence on the employment opportunities of persons with disabilities.
Persons with disabilities certainly need to be involved in the development of AI based tools, as doctor Cabra had mentioned, from the outset, to ensure that they are free from bias and can be used to promote disability inclusion.
For instance, by embedding universal design, accessibility, and individualized workplace accommodations.
This requires that persons with disabilities have the AI and digital skills, as was noted earlier, needed to actively participate in the AI related research and development, as well as in the practical use of AI based tools.
It also requires targeted action to close the digital divide faced by persons with disabilities and in particular women with disabilities.
Furthermore, Organizations of persons with disabilities need to be part in all relevant legal and ethical discussions on AI that are happening at the national, regional, and certainly at the international level.
The reality is that the future of work needs to be inclusive of persons with disabilities and I go back to Madam Minister's comments about leaving no one behind to ensure that the future of work that works for everyone.
I'll stop there.
Thank you so much.
And I thank Mr.
Yin for this inspiring intervention and for his brevity.
Before we move to the questions of the participants, I would like to table a question to all the speakers to make one recommendation for policymakers in the world to expedite from education to the inclusion and.
We start with miss Fatima.
The recommendation is engaging PWDs in decision taking with regard to the use of AI programs.
We may find ourselves after some time suffering from a gap.
Having called for the rights of PWDs trying to engage them in labor work and extend the rehabilitation and training programs with the increasing dependency on AI, we can face a wide gap.
That is the complete solitude of PDs.
AI is a double edged sword or weapon and it can be useful for the comprehensive evaluation and training programs.
However, if we use AI programs, for example, for those suffering from autism, if they spend the entire day before the screens of AI, this is another segregation we impose on them.
In addition to that, the AI programs, if they are meant to replace the Men and jobs, the first category to be replaced is PWDs and they are the vulnerable group.
We call to be ready so that we do not go into this gap again.
Thank you very much for this valuable evaluation.
Give us one recommendation.
We will be thankful.
Technological transformation.
It is changing how we learn how we work, how we communicate, how we receive, and how we participate in the society.
But we also know that technological change does not come together with social progress.
This is not all the time complimentary to each other.
The real question before us is not whether AI will transform society, but I think the real question should be, will persons with disabilities help shape that transformation or will they once again be expected to adopt a transformation designed without them? Whether while we are going this transformation of AI, whether we will include disability persons with disabilities or not.
So it is about redesigning the opportunity itself.
So I want to argue that redesigning transition pathways is not simply about improving services, but it is also improving the opportunities.
And when we see that the theme of the panel is like from education to economic participation, traditionally we see that transition pathways for the persons with disabilities have focused between stages like from education to employment, employment to retirement.
But this means that the pathways have often be fragmented.
But what it should be continuous, not fragmented stages for better include disability people.
Because too frequently individuals with disabilities encounter disconnected services between the life stages, rigid educational models and the AI actually gives us a opportunity to have some personalized educational systems.
So AI as she mentioned, Her Excellency, it's a double H sword, so it has opportunities in itself, but also it also has brits.
What we can do for all of us for policymakers, actually, the better way is that we should think about our existing assumptions.
Governments must rethink about what is policy.
Educators should think about what is learning, what is teaching in the age of AI.
Employers like Dala stated, must rethink about what is the labor force? What is work? Whether we need such long cars? What is workforce workplace environment? Technology companies must rethink about design, and I think all of us, the researchers must rethink about data and evidence.
I think While transforming, I can suggest that first we should think about our previous existing assumptions, whether it should be valid for the future.
Secondly, we should have persons with disability on the same boat, not without them.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Muhammad Mutlag.
My colleagues here mentioned Her Excellency, it's very important to understand this.
We cannot take them apart.
From the beginning, we need to understand what they want to be, what they are aiming for.
From the beginning we can understand how to integrate this information to them from early ages.
Because when they grow up, they go to kindergarten, then they go to school, middle school, then in high school, and they have no idea what's going on.
Then they go to college and still it's college life.
After college life is what's going to work.
Reality hits.
I think from the beginning, we need to make sure that the programs we have in our centers, especially for people with disabilities, we need from the beginning to understand what they want to be and how they're going to get there.
I think we can make programs designed and tailored to each student independently, even though we have the education system, but that's good, but we can add it to it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Muhammad.
Mr.
Sin emphasized before that Disability policy should move beyond welfare and protection approaches and focus much more on ensuring that persons with disabilities can obtain, retain, and certainly advance in employment on an equal footing and equal basis with others.
Given that we are in the course for this week and that we are in the House of Member States, I think certainly it makes sense to talk about recommendations for member states to consider, particularly in terms of committing to making disability inclusion a core objective of economic policy making by ensuring that persons with disabilities can be fully included in labor markets, as was stated before, in skill systems, as was stated before, in digital transformation, and certainly the green transition, for example.
I think making sure that this is much more part and parcel of economic policy making is a very important element for member states certainly to consider.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Yasin, for this brief recommendation.
I'd like to open the floor for any questions for 5 minutes if you have any question or query to the panelists.
Come on.
Today's discussion has indicated that challenge is not confined to providing educational training, but guaranteeing economic participation by PWDs International Partnership and supportive and Assistive Services AI are very important practical means for empowerment and independence.
I would like to extend our thanks to all the participants and the panelists and we hope that the outcome of this meeting will lead to more sustainable outputs.
I wish you fertile and rich meeting.
Thank you.
Godsea and blessings be on you.