Responsible Intelligence: Ethics, AI, and Equitable Product Design
AI is transforming everything — from how we communicate to how we manage tasks in both our personal and professional lives. It holds incredible potential to support independence and improve access.
However, AI can also unintentionally reinforce ableism. When trained on biased data, AI systems risk producing unfair outcomes. Tools that assume 'typical' behaviours or ways of interacting often create experiences that can exclude. As AI adoption accelerates at an unprecedented pace, thoughtful and responsible innovation has never been more critical.
This session dives into how we can embed ethics and equity at the core of AI-driven product design. We’ll explore common pitfalls seen in today’s AI applications and share practical, actionable strategies to build more inclusive and fair products.
Sarah Pulis
Sarah Pulis is co-founder and Director of Intopia, Australia and New Zealand's largest digital accessibility consultancy established in 2016. With over 15 years of experience in digital accessibility and inclusive design, Sarah is a passionate advocate for creating inclusive digital experiences for everyone. She holds a Master of Science in Dublin Core metadata, data modeling, metamodeling, and UML, as well as a Bachelor of Computer Science/Bachelor of Cognitive Science.
Beyond her consultancy work, Sarah founded A11y Bytes in 2013, which has grown from a single community event into a multi-event, multi-state digital accessibility initiative. She also founded A11y Camp, establishing Australia's largest community events focused on increasing awareness and supporting inclusive design and digital accessibility. Intopia is a proudly disability-led and female-led social enterprise that has grown to be the largest team of digital accessibility experts in the Southern Hemisphere. Sarah's mission centers on moving beyond minimum compliance to embrace inclusive design principles that create genuinely accessible digital experiences for people with disabilities.Retry