Digital human twins for disabled people: technology for enabling or ableism?

Amongst disruptive technologies in twenty-first century, digital twinning has been the backbone of the industry 4.0. This technology has also been increasingly applied to medicine and precision public health by creating digital human twins (DHT). However, the transformative nature of this technology also brings social and societal implications. This article addresses the research question of ‘What are the social implications of DHT development and the accompanying discourse in relation to disability?’ by critically reviewing and discussing the implications of the technology for disabled people and for their work and employment. In doing so, we fundamentally take socio-technical view which has dual focus on excellence in technology development as well as the equality that is afforded to people. Two key sociological theories underpin our discussion, namely 1) socio-materiality in the light of agentic capacity of DHT; and 2) technoableism and epistemic injustice rooted in critical disability study. Our aim of the paper is to offer provoking yet helpful points to think in addressing questions around the social implications of the DHT development to the disabled people. We raise novel questions of ethics on AI and DHT based on our arguments regarding agentic capacity of the technology and epistemic injustice faced by disabled people. We conclude our paper by suggesting the potential for DHT to be used to enhance disabled people’s well-being and sense of togetherness in the workplace and the society.

Citation

Godwin, E., Smith, M. Digital human twins for disabled people: technology for enabling or ableism?. AI & Society (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-026-03033-6

Type

Journal article

Language

en

Description

This is an author's accepted manuscript of an article ublished by Springer on 15/04/2026, available online: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-026-03033-6 The accepted manuscript may differ from the final published version. Fotr re-use please see Springer's terms and conditions.

ISSN

0951-5666

EISSN

1435-5655

Collections

Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Sciences