Surveilling Suitability: How AI Hiring Interviews Impact Job Seekers with Disabilities

Key findings from this study

This research indicates that:

• AI hiring interviews center normative characteristics in candidate assessment, systematically disadvantaging people with disabilities whose presentation diverges from baseline assumptions.
• These systems create significant information asymmetries, withholding algorithmic evaluation criteria and feedback from candidates while capturing extensive behavioral data for employers.
• Asynchronous video recording constitutes surveillance that extends beyond traditional interview scope, intruding on privacy by analyzing behavioral characteristics unrelated to job performance.
• People with disabilities experience AI hiring platforms as undermining autonomy by constraining how they can present themselves and respond to standardized prompts.

Overview

AI-powered asynchronous video interview platforms increasingly mediate hiring processes with claims of standardized, bias-free candidate assessment. This research examines how people with disabilities perceive and experience these systems, a population historically marginalized in labor markets and particularly exposed to technological injustice.

Methods and approach

The researchers conducted focus groups and semi-structured interviews with 19 people with disabilities. Analysis employed surveillance as an analytical framework to examine how AI hiring interviews reconfigure power relations between job seekers and employers.

Results

Participants perceived AI hiring interviews as discriminatory in four distinct ways. First, these platforms center normative characteristics in their assessment criteria, disadvantaging candidates whose presentation or communication styles diverge from baseline assumptions. Second, they exacerbate information asymmetries between job seekers and employers—candidates receive minimal feedback about how AI evaluates their performance, while employers obtain detailed behavioral data. Third, the systems undermine candidate autonomy by constraining how individuals can present themselves and respond to prompts. Fourth, the asynchronous video recording mechanism constitutes a form of workplace surveillance that intrudes on privacy by capturing and analyzing behavioral data beyond traditional interview scope.

The surveillance frame reveals how AI hiring interviews reconfigure social relations unidirectionally. Employers gain enhanced visibility into candidate behavior and characteristics, while job seekers operate under opacity regarding evaluation criteria and decision-making processes. This asymmetry creates particular vulnerabilities for people with disabilities, whose bodies, communication patterns, and assistance needs become subject to algorithmic scrutiny.

Implications

The findings suggest that despite promises of bias mitigation, AI hiring platforms may amplify existing structural inequities affecting disabled workers. Design interventions must address how these systems encode normative assumptions about professional comportment and accommodate neurodivergent and disabled communication styles. Transparency mechanisms are needed to illuminate algorithmic decision-making and reduce information asymmetries.

Policy frameworks should establish accountability measures for AI hiring systems, particularly regarding accessibility compliance and disparate impact assessment. Regulatory bodies must evaluate whether these technologies violate employment discrimination protections by systematizing discrimination against protected populations. Organizations deploying such platforms require explicit policies governing data retention, algorithmic transparency, and candidate recourse mechanisms.

Scope and limitations

This summary is based on the study abstract and available metadata. It does not include a full analysis of the complete paper, supplementary materials, or underlying datasets unless explicitly stated. Findings should be interpreted in the context of the original publication.