Reyhan Ramazanova

I grew up in a society where many people believed that ‘boys are better than girls’ especially at subjects such as math, physics, and chemistry. It wasn’t until I learned about human rights as a lawyer that I learned that this was a gender stereotype. Stereotypes sound like ‘Girls can’t run as fast as boys,’ or ‘Women don’t like science as much as men.’ Stereotypes are stories that are part of our society, but they are not part of our DNA, they’re not true. You know that anyone can be good at any subject, if they are a boy, girl, non-binary, or any other gender. So, science is for everyone! You can even be a scientist without being good at maths, physics or chemistry!

So, what are human rights? They are a list of things that you deserve to have simply because you are human. Things like clean water to drink, and a safe place to live. For example, everyone has a right to go to a school where they can study and play – this is the right to education. Where do stereotypes come into this? In some countries, girls are not given the same access to education as boys. Stereotypes can be used to change who is given access to their human rights!

As a lawyer, I study the human rights of a group of people who have a lot of stereotypes made about them, people with disabilities. I currently explore how Artificial Intelligence (AI) impacts the human rights of people with disabilities. For example, everyone has a right to access information, like the news. But if you are a person who is blind, and you cannot read it because the news is not accessible to you, your human right to information is compromised. But AI, like a text-to-speech tool (this is a smart tool that transfers the text to the voice), could read the news to you and make it accessible. This same technology can also allow someone to hear their favourite book or study an exciting new subject at school or read a letter from a friend. This is what I want to find out in my research: finding the ways that science and technology like AI are helping to deliver the human rights of people with disabilities.