Why Justice-Centred AI Matters Right Now
Author: Heather McCain
Live Educate Transform Society is led by disabled, neurodivergent and 2SLGBTQIA+ folks. We began, in 2005, as a grassroots organization and have grown to have clients across Turtle Island (colonially known as North America). As our reach grows, we remain rooted in community knowledge, care, and accountability.
At Live Educate Transform Society (LET’S), our work is rooted in 10 Principles of Disability Justice created by Sins Invalid, which understand accessibility, equity, and community care as ongoing, everyday practices. Our guiding principles include centring lived and living expertise, actively challenging and disrupting systems that pathologize, misrepresent, or erase disabled, neurodivergent, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people and perspectives, and prioritizing approaches that shift power and resources toward those most impacted.
Artificial intelligence is a conversation happening in many non-profit and community spaces. However, they rarely centre disability justice, Indigenous sovereignty, or intersectionality in meaningful ways. In response, LET’S created our Justice-Centred AI Ethics Guide and companion research guide. Our goal is to support organizations and individuals in understanding both the potential benefits and the very real harms of AI.
We also observed harmful patterns in these discussions. AI was framed as either harmful or transformative, with little nuance. Disabled and neurodivergent people were criticized for using AI as an access tool. Others were judged for not adopting it quickly enough. These reactions limit meaningful dialogue. We need deeper conversations grounded in care, complexity, and accountability.
A justice-centred approach shifts the focus:
- From performance to equity
- From neutrality to accountability
- From innovation to impact
- From individual benefit to collective wellbeing
AI is not neutral. It reflects the values, biases, and power structures of those who design and deploy it. Without intentional intervention, it can reinforce systemic inequities, including ableism, racism, transism, colonialism, and other “isms”.
Justice-centred AI asks us to do more than minimize harm. It challenges us to actively build systems that support dignity, access, and self-determination.
What Makes AI “Justice-Centred”?
Justice-centred AI goes beyond ethics checklists or diversity statements. It is rooted in disability justice principles, intersectionality, and community accountability.
At LET’S, we centre lived expertise. People most impacted by systems must shape how AI is designed and used. Technical knowledge alone is not enough. Ethical practice must include relational accountability and community leadership.
Key elements of justice-centred AI include:
- Lived expertise leadership: People from impacted communities must guide AI design, use, and evaluation
- Informed consent: Individuals should understand when and how AI is used, and have meaningful choices
- Accessibility by design: AI tools must be usable across diverse cognitive, sensory, and communication needs
- Data sovereignty: Communities, especially Indigenous communities, must retain control over their data
- Transparency: Organizations must clearly explain AI use in plain language
- Accountability: There must be mechanisms to address harm and repair trust
This approach also recognizes that “bias mitigation” (the proactive process of identifying, addressing, and reducing biases) alone is not enough. AI systems often replicate harmful norms because they are trained on biased data and built within inequitable systems.
For example, an AI hiring tool may claim to reduce bias but still disadvantage disabled applicants if it prioritizes productivity metrics rooted in ableist assumptions.
Justice-centred AI requires us to question the foundations of these systems, not just tweak their outputs.
It also means slowing down. Ethical implementation takes time, reflection, and community engagement. Quick adoption without critical analysis often leads to harm.
Risks and Harms We Cannot Ignore
AI is often framed as a neutral tool, but its impacts are deeply political and social. Without a justice-centred lens, AI can reinforce and increase harm.
Key risks include:
- Algorithmic bias: AI systems can replicate discrimination against disabled, racialized, 2SLGBTQIA+, and equity-denied communities
- Data exploitation: Personal and community data may be used without consent or benefit sharing
- Surveillance: AI can enable increased monitoring of equity-denied communities, particularly those already over-policed
- Accessibility gaps: Many AI tools are not designed with disabled users in mind
- Loss of human connection: Over-reliance on AI can reduce meaningful, relational engagement in care and service delivery
- Epistemic harm: Lived knowledge may be devalued in favour of “data-driven” outcomes
These risks are not hypothetical. They are already happening.
For example, automated decision-making tools used to screen people for housing, disability benefits, or income supports can flag families as “higher risk” based on biased data, leading to extra surveillance or denial of services for disabled and low-income community members. Similarly, AI-generated images and text can default to white, cis, non-disabled examples, quietly erasing the realities, bodies, and cultures of Black, Indigenous, disabled, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people.
In nonprofit and community sectors, there is an added layer of responsibility. Organizations often work with communities that have experienced systemic harm and mistrust.
Using AI without clear ethical guidelines can undermine relationships and credibility. It can also reinforce existing inequities.
Justice-centred AI requires us to ask:
- Who benefits from this tool?
- Who might be harmed?
- What safeguards are in place?
- Are we reinforcing or disrupting inequity?
If we cannot answer these questions clearly, we should reconsider how or whether we use AI.
Practical Steps for Ethical AI Use in Organizations
Moving toward justice-centred AI requires intention and accountability. Organizations can take concrete steps to align their practices with justice principles.
At LET’S, we recommend the following actions:
- Develop an AI ethics policy grounded in justice, not just compliance
- Engage community members, especially those with lived expertise, in decision-making processes
- Conduct accessibility audits of AI tools before implementation
- Use plain language to communicate when AI is being used
- Limit data collection to what is necessary and ensure secure storage
- Avoid using AI for high-stakes decisions without human oversight
- Provide staff training on ethical AI use, including bias and accessibility considerations
- Regularly review and update AI practices based on feedback and evolving knowledge
It is also important to recognize when not to use AI.
Some contexts require human connection, nuance, and care that AI cannot replicate. For example, crisis support, community consultations, and trauma-informed services must prioritize human engagement.
Organizations should also consider the environmental impact of AI. For our organization, we know that we, disabled people, may use it to as an access tool to assist us with our work but we must be aware and conscious of the fact that AI is disabling people with the environmental impacts of its use of water and energy. These impacts are not distributed evenly. Communities already facing environmental racism, unsafe working conditions, and climate injustice often bear the heaviest impacts.
Justice-centred AI is not about making thoughtful, values-aligned choices that prioritize people and the planet over productivity, profit, or prestige. This can look like choosing tools that are accessible and energy-conscious, testing them with community, and being willing to change course if harms emerge.
Building Collective Accountability and Future Possibilities
Justice-centred AI is not a one-time initiative. It is an ongoing practice that requires reflection, adaptation, and collective accountability.
No single organization can do this work alone. Collaboration across communities and sectors is essential.
We must create spaces where people can:
- Share experiences of harm and impact
- Co-develop ethical frameworks and practices
- Challenge dominant narratives about technology
- Imagine alternative futures rooted in justice and care
At LET’S, our AI Ethics Guide is a living document. It evolves as we learn from community, research, and practice. We encourage others to engage with it and adapt it.
AI has the potential to support accessibility and reduce barriers. However, this will only happen with intentional action.
We cannot be passive in how AI develops. The stakes are too high.
Justice-centred AI challenges us to reimagine technology as a tool for collective liberation rather than individual gain.
That work starts with asking better questions, listening deeply, and committing to action.
AI Transparency Statement:
LET’S practices relational accountability – being answerable to communities for how our choices affect people, communities, and the land. We take the responsibility to notice harms, listen to critique, and change course when needed.
Transparency is part of that responsibility, so we share this AI statement.
At Live Educate Transform Society (LET’S), we treat AI as a tool that requires care and critical thinking, recognizing that it carries values, biases, and power structures of those who build and train it.
Our commitments include:
- Using AI in limited and intentional ways
- Maintaining human oversight in all outputs
- Not replacing lived experience or professional judgment
As a small non-profit led by disabled and neurodivergent people, AI is used by some as an access and sustainability tool. It can be used for drafting, formatting, organizing, planning, customizing, and/or for resources. It is used in a way that respects our health, energy, and fluctuating capacity while supporting our process.
We use AI in our work, but we also recognize that most AI systems are built on existing inequities and have environmental impacts that further disable and marginalize people.
LET’S advocates for systemic change and promotes environmentally responsible use of AI. We model and share practical strategies for limiting and rethinking its use.
For this blog, AI was used only in a supporting role, using already existing LET’S content and frameworks. AI assisted the process; it did not drive it. All content was reviewed and verified by LET’S.
LET’S does not intentionally choose or create AI-generated images. However, platforms like Canva do draw from 3rd-party stock libraries that may include AI-generated images, often without clear labelling. We do our best to identify and avoid these images, and we welcome feedback if you notice something that concerns you.
Specific platform used for this blog: AI (Claude Sonnet 4.6 on Perplexity)
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