With a growing reliance on digital tools in pretty much every demographic in Scotlland, digital accessibility has become increasingly prominent in recent years (and for public bodies, increasingly stringent).

This is a good thing, for organisations and individuals. Standards such as WCAG 2.2 are now in the common vocabulary of digital, product, and marketing teams, but what about AI? Can we use AI to improve access to services?

Maybe you should ask Heather.

The Scottish Government, in collaboration with NHS 24, took part in a CivTech challenge on enabling more inclusive access to key public services, particularly for individuals with disabilities.

To tackle the barriers people face in accessing public services, ConnectingYouNow has developed an artificial intelligence assistant named Heather. It’s now in live testing on ALISS (A Local Information System for Scotland), which assists citizens in finding health and wellbeing services, groups, and activities across Scotland.

This solution was focused on tackling inequalities and understanding other people’s experiences, within Government and across the public sector.

With the utilisation of AI, this enables users to express their needs through text or speech, interacting with an intuitive two-way conversational AI system. Heather has been designed and optimised for individuals with sight and hearing loss, with the ultimate goal to be accessible to everybody.

Chris Mackie, the Digital Assistant Director of the Health and Social Care Alliance, stated: “I am delighted to see this innovative approach to accessing services trialled on ALISS. Everyone is talking about AI at the moment, and we are very pleased to showcase a demonstration of this innovative approach and allow people to contribute to its development.”