New app offers online IT training for people with intellectual disabilities

One in two people with intellectual disabilities have communication difficulties and one in three say that they experience difficulties talking to health professionals. A new app co-created by people with intellectual disabilities offers basic information technology skills training for people with intellectual disabilities.

The DigiAcademy app has been developed as part of a European project Digi-ID (funded by EIT Health) to address the challenges of digital inclusion and the low usage of digital technologies among people with intellectual disabilities.

“About 22 per cent of people with intellectual disabilities used technology before the pandemic and while that increased a little during the pandemic, we need to ensure that they are not left behind in the digital age,” says Dr Esther Murphy, principal investigator of Digi-ID and its follow on project, Digi-ID Plus, at the School of Engineering at Trinity College Dublin.

The innovative app (email digi-id@tcd.ie for info), which was co-designed with a paid citizen advisory panel of people with intellectual disability, gives step-by-step instructions on how to set up a Gmail or Facebook account, how to join or set up a Zoom meeting and how to use WhatsApp. The instructions are spoken by members of the citizen advisory panel and users can choose the pace at which they wish to follow these instructions.

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“We are living in very digitalised societies now and we all need to access information online either for social connections for our mental health or to use things like travel apps,” explains Dr Ida Korfage, Digi-ID research partner and assistant professor at the Erasmus Medical Centre, Universitat Medisch Centrum Rotterdam.

Speaking at a review meeting during the app’s development, users testing the app spoke about how it allowed them contact family members on video calls, look up crochet patterns and cooking lessons and email family and friends.

And while not everyone has direct access to a smartphone or laptop, mastering video calls and partaking in Zoom meetings on shared devices boosts confidence and allows people with intellectual disabilities to be less dependent on family members or staff in residential centres to access the internet and maintain contact with people.

Talita Holzer is the Digi-ID Tech Partner and co-founder of WaytoB, a company based in Ireland whose vision is to make the world accessible to everyone regardless of their level of ability. An expert in user-centric design, Holzer explains how having the citizen advisory panel involved at every stage of the design process enabled the app to be created in a shorter time than usual. “Usually we only engage with users when identifying the needs of the technology and when testing the prototype but by engaging with the citizen advisory panel at all stages, it helped us not replicate errors from other assistive technology even down to the choice of words, fonts and colours,” she explains.

Dr Murphy adds: “My goal was to have all members of the [production team] seen, heard and respected as experts at all stages of the research. It’s important to include people with intellectual disability in the digital revolution so that they can become digital educators. Researchers benefit from the wisdom of their lived experience.”

Dr Murphy has just received more European Commission funding for a three-year project to co-design digital skills training videos with and for people with intellectual disabilities. “It will focus on the way people like to learn using bite-size information and videos,” says Dr Murphy. A new citizen advisory panel with people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism will guide the process.

Fionn Crombie Angus, one of the members of the original citizen advisory panel succinctly explains the advantages of co-design. “It’s important that people like me are included in research. When people become familiar with using apps and online education, it opens up an entire world for them,” he says.