Recruitment AI has a Disability Problem: questions employers should be asking to ensure fairness in recruitment

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have the potential to dramatically impact the lives and life chances of people with disabilities seeking employment and throughout their career progression. While these systems are marketed as highly capable and objective tools for decision making, a growing body of research demonstrates a record of inaccurate results as well as inherent disadvantages for women and people of colour (Broussard, 2018; Noble, 2018; O’Neil 2017). Assessments of fairness in Recruitment AI for people with disabilities have thus far received little attention or have been overlooked (Guo et al., 2019; Petrick, 2015; Trewin, 2018; Trewin et al. 2019; Whittaker et al., 2019). This white paper details the impacts to and concerns of disabled employment seekers using AI systems for recruitment, and provides recommendations on the steps employers can take to ensure innovation in recruitment is also fair to all users. In doing so, we further the point that making systems fairer for disabled employment seekers ensures systems are fairer for all.

Access to employment: A comparison of autistic, neurodivergent and neurotypical adults’ experiences of hiring processes in the United Kingdom

“…Indeed, evidence from a recent white paper suggests that the increasing use of artificial intelligence in recruitment (e.g. curriculum vitae screeners) is problematic in this regard as systems are unable to account for such individual differences in experiences (Nugent et al, 2020). As a result, autistic candidates may be likely to be ‘screened out’ before they are able to demonstrate their skills.…”

SoK: A Proposal for Incorporating Accessible Gamified Cybersecurity Awareness Training Informed by a Systematic Literature Review

“…Additionally, the incentives productively increase in gamification activity for neurodiverse end-users, particularly in the development of serious games. Nugent et al address inclusive gamified cybersecurity assessments in their research, Recruitment AI has a Disability Problem: questions employers should be asking to ensure fairness in recruitment [56]. In like manner, Le et al review the opportunity landscape neurodiverse end-users limited participation in gamified cybersecurity assessments, stating that "a qualified, visually impaired, cybersecurity expert will only be the best .…”

Universal design in psychometric testing

“…Further, as the use of Artificial Intelligence in the application of testing increases, human interaction is increasingly out of the loop and caution is advised on any decision-making protocol where human administrations cannot influence outcomes by being in the loop or 'on the loop' (Bankins, 2021). Problems become compounded for disabled people who are rarely considered when designing video interviewing (consider those with facial disfigurement, tics, stroke patients) or online test use (consider Dyslexic, Blind and Deaf people) (Nugent et al, 2020). Situational judgement tests have been found to be discriminatory for Autistic people by Employment Appeal Tribunal, meaning that this is now settled UK law 1 .…”