A few months ago, I received a phone call from a mother who is blind. She was not calling to discuss technology. She was calling because she was worried about her two-year-old son.
"My son has learned that I cannot see," she told me. "He has also learned that if he stays completely quiet, I cannot find him. Sometimes he hides in a corner of the room without making a sound. Those are the moments that frighten me the most."
As she spoke, I could hear something that every parent understands: Fear for a child's safety. But for her, that fear was magnified by the simple reality that she could not rely on vision.
I suggested she try an AI-powered visual assistance app. Using the smartphone's camera, the app analyzes the surroundings and describes them aloud in real time.
A few weeks later, she called me again.
This time, her voice sounded different.
"My phone tells me, 'Your child is standing near the door.' It says, 'Your child is playing with a toy.' Sometimes it even tells me what he is holding. I can find him almost immediately."
The technology had not restored her eyesight.
But it had restored something equally important: Confidence.
That conversation stayed with me because it perfectly captured what artificial intelligence really means for many persons with disabilities.
Public discussions about AI usually focus on automation, productivity, investment, or whether machines will replace human jobs. Those conversations are important. Yet they often overlook another reality.
For millions of people with disabilities, AI is not about replacing people. It is about reducing dependence.
I know this because I live it every day.
I am a person with a visual disability, and for much of my life, ordinary tasks depended on someone else's availability.
If someone handed me a printed document, I had to ask them to read it.
If I received a business card, I had to ask whose name was written on it.
If I wanted to identify the label on a medicine bottle or read information on product packaging, I often needed another person's help.
There is nothing wrong with asking for support. We all depend on one another in different ways.
But when every simple task requires assistance, independence slowly slips away.
Artificial intelligence is changing that.
Today, I begin my mornings by reading the news independently. AI reads newspapers and online articles aloud, allowing me to follow national affairs, global events, and public debates without waiting for someone else to read them to me.
When I prepare for work, AI helps identify the colour of my clothes and suggests matching combinations.
To many people, choosing a shirt may seem insignificant.
To me, choosing my own clothes without asking another person is dignity in action.
Even this article has been shaped with the help of AI.
I speak, AI converts my words into text, and I refine the ideas. What once took hours can now be accomplished far more efficiently, allowing me to spend less time overcoming barriers and more time contributing my expertise.
Across the world, similar stories are unfolding every day.
Students are accessing textbooks more independently.
Professionals are reviewing documents and writing reports.
Entrepreneurs are managing businesses.
People are navigating unfamiliar places with greater confidence.
Families are communicating more effectively.
AI is quietly removing barriers that many people never realized existed.
However, technology alone is not enough. AI can only be transformative when the digital world itself is accessible.
An intelligent assistant cannot fully compensate for a website that cannot be navigated with a screen reader, an online form that is inaccessible from the keyboard, or a mobile application that ignores basic accessibility standards.
Accessibility remains the foundation. AI is an accelerator -- not a substitute -- for inclusive design.
As someone who has spent more than two decades working on digital accessibility, I see AI as one of the greatest opportunities to build a more inclusive society. But that opportunity will only be realized if governments, businesses, educators, developers, and technology companies intentionally include persons with disabilities in designing and testing digital products.
The disability community has long embraced the principle: "Nothing about us without us."
The same principle must guide the future of AI.
When people with disabilities participate in designing technology, AI becomes more accurate, more useful, and ultimately more human.
People sometimes ask me whether AI has changed my life.
My answer is simple.
AI did not give me sight. It gave me something I value just as much.
The freedom to read independently.
The confidence to make my own choices.
The dignity to participate more equally in society.
And for millions of people with disabilities around the world, that may be AI's most remarkable achievement.
Vashkar Bhattacharjee is a digital accessibility expert and disability rights advocate with a visual disability and over 20 years of experience. Email: vashkarbd@gmail.com.