ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES IN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: A PRISMA-GUIDED SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Artificial intelligence (AI) and assistive technologies (AT) are increasingly reshaping disability-inclusive education by extending accessibility support toward adaptive, predictive, and personalized assistance. This PRISMA - guided systematic review synthesizes evidence on the technologies used to support students with disabilities, their educational purposes and reported outcomes, and the barriers affecting implementation. The review integrates descriptive mapping and thematic synthesis within an analytical framework linking technology, accessibility/support mechanisms, educational practice, student outcomes, and contextual conditions. The preliminary Scopus corpus comprised 100 records published in 2026, from which 27 studies were retained for the focused synthesis. The evidence indicates growing convergence between conventional AT and AI-enabled systems, with prominent applications in accessibility, communication, personalized learning, classroom participation, and independent learning. Reported benefits extend beyond academic achievement to engagement, autonomy, and participation, while implementation is constrained by infrastructure, cost, teacher competence, institutional readiness, accessibility limitations, privacy, algorithmic bias, and AI literacy. The review proposes an AI-Enabled Inclusive Education Framework that positions learner needs as the starting point and meaningful inclusion as the principal outcome. The findings highlight the need for longitudinal, intervention-based, disability-specific, and geographically diverse research, together with accessibility-by-design and responsible AI governance.