Upcoming
M-Enabling Summit 2026
Building AI that includes persons with disabilities: IDA at the M-Enabling Summit 2026. At the M-Enabling Summit in Arlington, IDA and G3ict brought together people who build, buy, regulate and live with AI systems
What happened
Last week, IDA took a new step in its work with the private sector on AI, at the M-Enabling Summit. On Wednesday morning, IDA and G3ict convened a closed working session in three rounds with leaders across the industry: where AI breaks, what good practice must include, and what would move it. Participating experts worked from real examples of where AI systems still fail persons with disabilities and began outlining what a checklist grounded in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) would need to include. Under the Chatham House Rule, we are not naming participants or attributing anything that was said.
Why IDA was there
With AI, many of the rules are not written by governments. They are written in requirements documents, procurement contracts and training data, often inside companies. Whether a benefits system flags a person as a risk, or whether a deaf person can trust the captions on a call, is settled there long before anyone sees the product. Governments are not yet filling the gap: G3ict’s forthcoming report, Closing the Transparency Gap for Disability and Ethical AI in Public Services, with a foreword by José María Viera, found that only 34 of 193 UN Member States publish enough information to show how they govern AI in public services for persons with disabilities. Article 4.3 of the CRPD requires States to involve us, through our representative organisations, in decisions that affect our lives.
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What we heard
One participant said something that José María Viera named as a key takeaway of the morning: “No one is ever accidentally accessible.” Builders, buyers and organisations of persons with disabilities, working at separate tables, described the same pattern:
1. Accessibility is still not built into AI's design. Persons with disabilities are missing from design teams, testing, and AI standards.
2. Failures are found after launching by the people they harm, because disability data is missing or out of date, and systems are not transparent about where they break.
3. Inclusion is still not a leadership priority, and teams lack the skills to deliver it. When something goes wrong, there is often no human alternative and no way to appeal.
What the group agreed
Participants left IDA and G3ict with a first draft of five minimum elements for disability-inclusive AI, grounded in the CRPD:
1. Impact testing before release
2. Persons with disabilities involved from the outset
3. Accessibility as a condition of procurement
4. Transparency, with a route to appeal
5. Accurate disability data
Tables also set out first ideas for putting these into practice, from a multi-stakeholder working group to international cooperation on standards.
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What we are taking back
Canada's new national standard on accessible and equitable AI, CAN-ASC-6.2, shows what a reference can look like. There is no shared international one yet. Engineers, procurement teams and regulators each work from their own idea of what inclusion means, and nobody can be held to it.
“Standards take years to write, and AI changes in months, so the reference has to be practical enough to use now and built to be updated. A reference grounded in the CRPD would give engineers, buyers and regulators the same starting point. IDA’s members are well placed to help write it together with industry and standards bodies.” — José María Viera, Executive Director, IDA
Disability inclusion needs the private sector, but partnership must never become substitution. For companies, that means bringing organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) in while requirements are still being drafted and testing for impact before release. For our movement, it means coming up with concrete proposals and saying what would be enough, as well as what is wrong.
Read José María's full reflection.
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What comes next
Arlington is the starting point for IDA’s work with industry on AI. Here is what happens now.
As a synthesis for participants. We will share a synthesis of the morning with everyone who took part.
A joint IDA and G3ict report. The synthesis will help shape a joint report that develops the five minimum elements into a practical reference that engineers, buyers and regulators can use.
On the road to Doha. That report will carry forward into preparations for the Global Disability Summit 2028 in Doha.
An open invitation. If your organisation builds, buys or regulates AI, which OPDs are you working with? If you are not working with one yet, IDA can help you make that connection.
Thank you to Christopher Lee, Axel Leblois and the whole G3ict team for building this session with us, and to every participant who spoke openly about where their own systems fall short. We look forward to carrying this work forward together on the road to Doha.