Biometric System

A technology system that uses innate human physical or behavioral characteristics — such as facial features, fingerprints, voice patterns, gait, or iris patterns — to identify or verify a person's identity. Biometric systems pose particular risks for people with disabilities because they often fail to accommodate physical differences: facial recognition may not work for people with facial asymmetry or prosthetics, signature verification systems reject signatures of people with motor or mental disabilities, voice recognition fails for people with speech impairments, and fingerprint readers may not work for people with certain physical conditions. These failures can lead to exclusion from services, false accusations, and denial of rights.