Welfare Technology for persons with Intellectual Disabilities - enhancement of Community Participation and Quality of Life

The vision of this project is that accessible welfare technology enhances community participation and quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities (ID), and that easy-to-use electronic communication tools can enhance coordination between a person with ID and the formal and informal care givers. The overall goal is to assess and implement welfare technology to enhance community participation and quality of life (QOL) for people with ID, using existing knowledge about the barriers, needs, resources and opportunities of the different stakeholders involved. People with ID experience deficiencies accessing to healthcare provision due to communication problems, inadequate facilities and rigid procedures. Coordination between formal and informal caregivers is complex and challenging. Community participation is an important goal for people with ID. However this group is particularly vulnerable to barriers for equal participation with other members of society. Community participation is closely related to the experience of QOL, which is a multidimensional phenomenon including personal, environmental and contextual aspects. Little is known about the impact of environmental factors in community participation for people with ID and the effect it could have for their social inclusion. In particular, the impact that welfare technology in combination with service innovation, has on community participation is still unclear. The Agder Living Lab (ALL) concept develops user-centered eHealth solutions using a quadruple helix model involving key actors: citizen, industry, academia and government. The ALL offers an experimental arena for universal design to implement welfare technology, eHealth, telemedicine and mobile health solutions. The ALL will be a central vehicle in developing and adapting new technology and service innovation to promote community participation and QOL for people suffering from ID.