Autonomous University of Madrid establishes Indra-Adecco Foundation chair of accesible technologies

The managing director of the Autonomous University of Madrid Foundation, María Artola, Indra's director of Innovation, José Luis Angoso, the IT multinational's director of University Relations, Carlos Fernández, and the managing director of the Adecco Foundation, Francisco Mesonero, have today signed the agreement to create the Indra-Adecco Foundation Chair of Accessible Technologies of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM).

This new addition raises the total number of chairs that Indra, as part of its Corporate Responsibility programme, has established in conjunction with the Adecco Foundation with Spanish universities, to seven. The aim is to develop innovative solutions and services that facilitate access to technology and social and employment inclusion for people with disabilities.

The main objective of the UAM chair is to carry out R&D and innovation projects, in addition to training, technology transfer, dissemination and awareness activities within the scope of new technologies applied to the improvement of the integration of people with disabilities.

Environmental Intelligence to Facilitate Job Placement

The first project will cover the development of new environmental intelligence technologies to facilitate job placement for people with learning difficulties, specifically, people with Down syndrome. Environmental intelligence is based on the integration of different technologies into the environment of people, enabling recognition of their context to provide customised services that meet, and even anticipate, their needs and help them to carry out their everyday activities.

In this case, the aim is to provide this group of disabled workers with an information system that provides them, by means of the use of mobile telephones and 2D labels (QR), with customised instructions for the tasks assigned to them in their work and to locate the resources they need to carry them out.

These technologies will also register the progress of these professionals in the performance of each task, in such a way that their managers can gradually reduce the level of help they require. The objective is not only to reduce the period of adaptation to the working environment, but also to improve efficacy in the performance of professional processes.

Prototypes for Operating and Locating Resources in the Workplace

By late 2013 two functional prototypes are expected to have been produced: one to operate resources and another to locate them. The first will provide people with learning difficulties with manuals adapted to their needs in order to operate resources in the work environment, such as photocopiers, printers and pigeonholes. This allows the users to perform the tasks required of them with greater independence, as they will have at all times a user manual on the task and on the resources to be employed to perform it. They simply use their mobile phones to capture the 2D label corresponding to the resource, for example a photocopier, to be provided with a step-by-step guide adapted to their needs and to the requirements of the task.

Moreover, once the task has been performed, the manager can review the execution record and progressively reduce the help provided by the system, adapting the manuals to the progress of the user.

The second prototype will be a system to help locate resources. In this case, the users will use the camera in their mobile phones to capture the 2D label corresponding to a resource of the location they are in and the system will locate them and issue the relevant instructions to reach the next marker. The navigation instructions will be customised in accordance with the disability in question. Moreover, the progress of the person will be registered in the monitoring of the routes, in such a way that assistance can be reduced as the professional becomes more confident and has more knowledge of the work environment.

Both prototypes will be tested and evaluated by students with Down syndrome and other cognitive disabilities enrolled in the UAM's "Training for Work Placement for Young People with Learning Difficulties" programme.

Indra

Indra is the number one IT multinational in Spain, and one of the leaders in Europe and Latin America. It is the second European company in its sector in terms of R&D, with more than €500 million invested in the last three years. Its 2011 revenues were €2.688 billion, and international markets now account for 50%. The company employs more than 36,000 professionals and has customers in 118 countries.

Adecco Foundation

Established in July 1999, the Adecco Foundation is the result of the social responsibility the Adecco company has assumed as the world leader in human resources. Its main objective is the inclusion in the job market of people who, due to their personal characteristics, find it harder to gain employment.

The Adecco Foundation has work placement programmes for:

- Men and women over 45

- Disabled people

- Women with sole responsibility for their families and/or victims of gender violence

- High performance sportspeople or ex-sportspeople

Autonomous University of Madrid Foundation (FUAM)

The Autonomous University of Madrid Foundation is a non-profit organisation that was established in 1991 to serve as a bridge between the university and society. Thanks to the quality of the UAM's research and support for innovation, its UAM+CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) research centre has been recognised as a Campus of International Excellence.