AI video assessments

When I was first approached to contribute to Employment Autism, (some 5 months ago), my life looked very different to what it does now. Although I am still working for the same employer and still living at home, I have had the opportunity to deep dive into the world of AI recruitment, the primary method of recruiting graduates, courtesy of the BBC.

It has only reaffirmed my beliefs all those months ago, that the AI (artificial intelligence) assessed recruitment methods* employed by firms to onboard graduates, is inherently biased and discriminative in its construction and interpreted use, towards those with ANY disability, let alone those with learning disabilities.

I am Oliver, and I was diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger’s at the age of 15. I have a BSc in Economics and Business, obtained in 2019, and currently work as a Team Leader at Morrisons.  Specifically, I am one of 5 Online Team Leaders, responsible in the day to day running of the Amazon Prime Now and Deliveroo contracts, as well as our own Click & Collect operation.

You may have noticed that I graduated in 2019, just prior to the Covid 19 pandemic. I spent almost all of my time applying to graduate roles in the months succeeding my graduation, always failing at the same stage, the Video Interview Stage. Why was this? I was certainly knowledgeable and eloquent enough to have warranted progressing further in one of the 30 roles I had applied for. I have since come to learn that the video interviews which are solely assessed by AI technology monitor repetitions of certain words or phrases, disengagement of eye contact, pauses in speech.