Organizational and legal problems of assistive technologies: the case of inheritance laws addressed to speech-impaired people

AI-based voice technologies such as speech synthesis are being employed in the framework of disability, in example to allow speech-impaired people affected by SLA to express their will orally. Nevertheless, the augmentative and assistive potential of those technologies clashes with a series of social and legal issues. In this contribution we will focus on the conflicts deriving from the lack of coordination between technology, rights and society when considering the case of inheritance laws addressed to speech-impaired people. Through the analysis of voice technologies, their social representations and the legal frameworks, we will highlight the limits of “solutionist” representations inherent narratives of “technological enhancement” typical of AI in the face of juridical frameworks where the augmentative possibilities of those devices are not recognized and complied. We argue that this kind of contradiction is a classic case of social construction of disability, since it exasperates the discomfort inherent speech-impairment and produces exclusion from social and juridical institutions.