Identifying, Explaining, and Correcting Ableist Language with AI

Ableist language perpetuates harmful stereotypes and exclusion, yet its nuanced nature makes it difficult to recognize and address. Artificial intelligence could serve as a powerful ally in the fight against ableist language, offering tools that detect and suggest alternatives to biased terms. This two-part study investigates the potential of large language models (LLMs), specifically ChatGPT, to rectify ableist language and educate users about inclusive communication. We compared GPT-4o generations with crowdsourced annotations from trained disability community members, then invited disabled participants to evaluate both. Participants reported equal agreement with human and AI annotations but significantly preferred the AI, citing its narrative consistency and accessible style. At the same time, they valued the emotional depth and cultural grounding of human annotations. These findings highlight the promise and limits of LLMs in handling culturally sensitive content. Our contributions include a dataset of nuanced ableism annotations and design considerations for inclusive writing tools.