Staff training is an essential component of your Equitable AI professional development program. Like other elements of staff training on disability inclusion, putting these structures in place helps ensure all employees understand their organization’s vision, policies, initiative structure, and resources for implementing equitable AI. Developing a successful culture of inclusion requires that everyone an organization gain a basic understanding of these issues, and people in more technical roles will need specialized training.
Some example training modules could include:
- Considering human diversity in AI: How to consider human diversity and equitable outcomes in AI not only from the lens of race and gender, but also age and disability.
- Unconscious bias: Unconscious bias training can help staff be more aware of how to eliminate bias data-driven AI products, business processes, and organizational practices. This should also cover types of bias such as cognitive bias and incomplete data, as well as understanding bias in hiring generally.
- Consequence Scanning: Consequence scanning can help employees consider the potential consequences of their product or service on people, communities and the planet. This is a lightweight, easy-to-understand, agile practice that can fit within an iterative development or implementation cycle.
- Responsible Creation of AI: Salesforce offers a free Trailhead module on Responsible Creation of AI that aims to empower developers, designers, researchers, writers and project managers to build and implement AI in a responsible and trusted way.
- Audits for equity in AI: How to audit AI-enabled technology for fairness and equitable use, address challenges in those audits, and identify risks for people with disabilities using AI.
- Equity in AI-enabled technology procurement: How to consider the benefits and risks related to AI-enabled technology, question vendors, review audit results, and ensure human-in-the-loop feedback loops for risk detection and mitigation.
Integrate into Organization-Wide Efforts
As you develop a curriculum, ensure that you integrate it into existing organization initiatives. For example, you’ll want to link this training to across any related organization-wide initiatives already in place such as Diversity Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA), Data Privacy, and Accessibility.
Leverage Existing Trainings
You can save time by leveraging existing trainings. Examples include:
- PEAT/ADA Webinar: “AI Fairness for Persons with Disabilities in Workplace Technologies”
- IBM’s Design for AI Resources
- Microsoft’s Responsible AI Resources
- Salesforce’s Ethics by Design Training
- Salesforce’s Responsible Creation of AI Training
Leverage External AI Ethics, DEIA, and Accessibility Consultants
If you lack expertise inside your organization, help is available through consultants. You can find guidance on engaging AI ethics experts in Play 7 of the Equitable AI Playbook. PEAT also provides recommendations on hiring accessibility consultants.
