Towards Intersectional CUI Design Approaches for African American English Speakers with Dysfluencies

Conversational User Interfaces (CUI), such as voice assistants, offer great potential as a communication modality for people with disabilities. Unfortunately, the limited research that has examined the design of CUIs with regard to race or disability considers each in isolation, neglecting the lived experiences of African Americans with speech dysfuencies. This position paper first reviews literature considering race and disability in CUI design. We then explore compounding inequities at this intersection for African American English speakers who stutter. Finally, we invite participants to engage in inquiry around intersectional approaches to designing equitable CUIs that honor the intersection of race and disability.