Overview:
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Content Summary: This page provides an overview of the Axis research project, its goals, hypotheses, and outcomes, focusing on how AI-generated accessibility resources can impact the arts.
This page provides an overview of the Axis research project, what it set out to explore, and how the findings shifted once disabled and Deaf artists shared their actual experiences with AI.
This project is produced by grunt gallery and led by Kay Slater. It is possible thanks to funding from the Canada Council of the Arts.
The Axis research project began as an investigation into whether AI-generated accessibility resources could positively or negatively impact the arts — exploring tools that support non-auditory access, language and translation, non-visual access, and physical alternatives. What it became was something more grounded and more urgent: a portrait of how disabled and Deaf artists in British Columbia are actually living with AI right now.
How the research evolved
Spring 2026 – The original hypotheses assumed the conversation was primarily about developing better tools. After six months of reading, attending lectures, hosting conversations, and surveying disabled and Deaf artists in UBC, a different picture emerged. The artists Kay spoke with weren’t waiting for AI to get better. They were already using it, often out of necessity, while holding reasonable fears about what it might cost them.
The most important finding was structural, not technological: for most respondents, AI fills gaps left by human support services that are unaffordable, unavailable after hours, or simply not budgeted for. It is not a preference. It is a survival strategy. And the most urgent concern is that AI will be used to declare accessibility “solved,” and funding for human interpreters, captioners, and support workers will be cut as a result.
The research also surfaced something that was largely absent from the broader national AI conversation: shame. Many disabled artists are hiding their AI use from their own communities, navigating judgment in spaces where the stakes of an unpopular opinion can mean real social and material isolation.
Project Outcomes
The report (publishing Summer 2026) is the primary outcome of the Axis project. It will be available in HTML, plain text, audio with visual descriptions, and ASL video with a Deaf interpreter. All text and audio materials are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. The ASL video is not available for remix or redistribution.
The 44-question survey is available as a template for other researchers to use, and is available on Google Forms for community members to take themselves. The published report will not be updated to include any surveys submitted (welcomed, but unverified).
A template letter for advocating to your employer or local government about AI policy is available, alongside the full survey instrument, which is also shared under Creative Commons.
Contact
Kay’s bio page is available on the grunt.ca website.