Topic hub
AI, Digital Systems and Disabled Customers
AI, biometric verification, automated customer service and digital booking under the Equality Act 2010: the new reasonable adjustments duty AI can create, exception journey design, and the Rotherham GP EMMA case.
AI, biometric verification and automated customer service are now part of ordinary business. Banks use facial recognition. Retailers require app authentication. Utilities automate customer contact. Voice recognition increasingly sits between a customer and a human. There is nothing inherently inaccessible about any of this. The risk arises when the automated route becomes the only route.
The revised EHRC statutory Code in force from 5 August 2026 means service providers should be reviewing these systems through the anticipatory reasonable adjustment duty. The practical question is simple: what happens when your technology doesn't work for a disabled customer?
The Rotherham GP AI receptionist, EMMA, is the live example. Patients are hanging up because it can't understand their accents. The fallback to a human exists on paper, but when patients would rather walk to the surgery than use the phone, the fallback isn't working as a reasonable adjustment. It's working as a barrier. AI doesn't remove the reasonable-adjustments duty. It can create a new one.
The exception journey
Map two routes: primary and exception. Disability-related failure belongs alongside fraud and forgotten-password paths. The question is whether the fallback is genuinely accessible, not whether it exists on paper.
Crash test your tech
Deliberately fail your own technology, then follow the customer journey. The eight questions that tells you more than any supplier accessibility statement.
Procurement doesn't outsource the duty
DTAC clinical-safety approval for an NHS AI system doesn't outsource the Equality Act duty. The duty sits on the provider and the commissioning authority, not the software supplier.
Section 20(7) and cost
Cost remains a factor in reasonableness, but a digital system that creates a new disadvantage can't be defended simply because the alternative is expensive to design.
Articles on this topic
Once Said: The Case for a Universal Access Profile
Chris Fry makes the case for a voluntary, universal Access Profile, so disabled people can explain their communication needs once and have the support follow them across public and private services.
Read article →Digital Accessibility and the Case for a Disability Passport
Chris Fry examines the Nimbus and NHS Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag developments together and makes the case for a voluntary Disability Passport trusted by almost one million users.
Read article →Digital ID Has Changed. Do Disabled Customers Still Need an Access Card?
Chris Fry explains why new digital ID rules don't replace the Nimbus Access Card, what Access Cards actually verify, and what new ticketing integration means for disabled customers.
Read article →When Remote Access Is an Adjustment, Not a Substitute for Access
Chris Fry examines the Royal Opera House Mirrorbox project and the Equality Act question of when virtual participation is a good reasonable adjustment, and when physical access should still be provided.
Read article →The Problem with EMMA: Crash Test your Tech
When AI can't understand the customer, and what it means for every customer-facing business. Chris Fry on the Rotherham GP AI receptionist, the revised EHRC Code, and why AI doesn't remove the reasonable-adjustments duty, it can create a new one.
Read article →Ten Days to Compliance: The EHRC Code Changes Everything for Digital Accessibility
On 5 August 2026 the EHRC's new Statutory Code of Practice became the definitive framework courts must apply to Equality Act claims. For organisations with digital customer journeys, the implications are immediate.
Read article →The Right Person for the Job
Automated screening software is quietly filtering out disabled candidates before any human sees their application, and the employers deploying it are carrying the legal exposure.
Read article →Related resources
How Strategic Access Consulting can help
Practical support on this topic, from audits and training to insurance-backed retainer cover.
Dynamic Disability Assessment for digital and AI customer journeys