I don’t want to be another article booing the rise in automation or saying that robots are taking all our jobs. The reality is that automation is happening and has always happened within industries, the difference now is the pace, and our ability to respond to these changes. Research has boomed recently on how to prepare for potential job destabilization in the labor force due to AI. Many times automation and now AI make simple, repetitive tasks and skill sets obsolete. These jobs tend to be the types of jobs that people with disabilities lean towards.
A report from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee found the following occupations will have large portions of tasks lost: customer service (83%), retail salespersons (62%), general and operations managers (47%), secretaries and administrative assistants (80%). When you compare the occupations projected to be lost or changed with the sectors where people with disabilities work, the overlap is palpable. These jobs also tend to be lower paying, and despite their lower wages they are a main source of income for those employees.
Automation replaces job tasks deemed simple, but increases expert level jobs, ultimately increasing wages for expert level jobs. The former where most people stop, at the fear of job loss with AI. As automation reshapes the workforce, workers with disabilities are left out of both the warnings and the solutions. Automation allows for job creativity to evolve, repetitive tasks will soon be absolute and the need for critical thinking jobs will increase. Now is the time to rethink the skill sets we provide for people with disabilities entering the workforce. Automation and AI could be an avenue to increase the skill level and wages of people with disabilities in our workforce.
Disability educational programs, advocacy groups, and nonprofit organizations need to be leading conversations regarding the use of AI technology in assisting disability services and accommodations in the workplace, creating educational programming in school systems and non-profit vocational training programs. People with disabilities count on their jobs to pay their bills, keep their independent living skills, and care for themselves and their families. We need to be thinking about this population when having employment conversations. Automation is changing the game and we need to make sure that people with disabilities still have a turn.
Next Steps:
- Changing the workforce development conversation: Disability organizations, schools, and publicly funded programs need to be at the forefront of teaching workforce development in an automated workplace. Workforce development and independent living skills are a core pillar of special education classrooms (along with social-emotional skills and self-regulation). Conversations need to be had regarding using vocational training in classrooms to increase AI literacy skills of those with disabilities.
- Use law frameworks to finance and create buy-in: AI is on the tip of everyone’s tongues, conversations around the topic are hard to miss. The disability community should be engaging in the conversations already happening. In 2025, the Trump administration passed the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), part of which included America’s AI Action Plan 2025. The action plan layouts plans to promote the integration of AI skill development in career and technical education under federally supported skills initiatives. There are also funds available to states that adapt AI training programs. Policymakers need to champion these efforts and funnel these programs into educational systems for people with disabilities.
- Revamp vocational training: The rules of the game are changing and we need to as well. The competencies used in job skills analysis and training need to change as automation reshapes the landscape. Instead of knowing how to make change, or rotate products on shelves on inventory day, workers need to learn how to read AI scans of product visibility on shelves and how to automatically order those items. Partnerships like The Arc and AT&T’s digital literacy training that teach basic online user skills and safety, can easily add content regarding AI use and coding.
- Create cross-sector partnerships: Special education schools and non-profit programs should be championing partnerships with corporations on worksite training opportunities to ensure students with disabilities have the skills they need to be employable after school.
In my time working as direct support staffer for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities on job sites I saw the talent, creativity, and care individuals brought to their jobs. Now, every time I visit a store or visit a new business I look for ways we could integrate people with disabilities into working there. The ability to look for opportunities to add individuals with disabilities into new business sectors has stuck with me. For this to happen, we need to start by giving them the skills, opportunities, and knowledge that they need.
Emily Carchia has a bachelor’s degree from Vermont State University where she worked in the mental health field and solidified her love for disability rights and activism. Currently she is dual degree masters MSW/MPA student at Columbia University where she is studying economic development policy and social work.
Opinions expressed are solely those of the writer(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Able News at The Viscardi Center and/or The Viscardi Center.