ATLab - Assistive Technology Lab, providing ePad Access to people with disabilities

More than 10 million disabled people live in the region of D-A-CH. Special input devices and adequate software are barely available and mostly very expensive, as a consequence for these people the access to digital learning contents is very limited or is not possible at all.

At the same time almost every day a new Touchpad- or Tablet device is introduced. Meanwhile these products are available at a reasonable price and have the potential to grant access to digital learning contents for training and therapy also for disabled people.

In particular these new technologies and interaction concepts offer possibilities to realise a better and more efficient access to digital teaching contents for the following target groups:

People with learning disabilityPeople with limited motor skillsPeople with speech impediment

This is valid for children, youngsters, adults and older people. Especially when advanced in years disabilities appear with high probability.

Hence, the main goal of this project is the development of a flexible and easy system for the specific production of applications on current available Smart-Home-Devices for disabled people. The system consists of the following components:

Software-Framework for the easy and quick development of contents without barriers for disabled people on different platformsSoftware components for the easy integration of specific hardware input devices (e.g. Microsoft Kinect, Integra-Mouse, Hip, Eyetracking, Tagged Objects, push-button-control)Cloud Services as a basis for the implementation of educationally new learning concepts and for the specific support and connection of disabled people

As one of the first steps of the project the special needs of disabled people have to be analysed and structured. After the choice of a suitable architecture and the system specification a proof-of-concept in terms of functionality, usability and unrestricted access will be made. The permanent integration of the end users, some additional experts from the care domain and an integration of learning content providers at an early stage guarantees a comprehensive solution.

The project consortium consists of LifeTool Linz, Institut Integriert Studieren at Johannes Kepler University Linz, and University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Campus Hagenberg.