Enhancing communication: research to improve communication for people with special needs and development of ICT resources and tools.

Project summary

EC+- project was conceived to improve the interaction with people with severe intellectual disabilities and to develop ICT resources and tools. It was a 33month project coordinated by the University of Malaga and within the European Commission framework under the 2015 Erasmus+ programme KA2 “Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices” in the field of Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education. Bearing in mind the existing gap in communication with people suffering from severe intellectual disability in all paths of life, present in previous reports and research literature, EC+ project aimed at: 1. Developing a comprehensive framework of ICT tools to empower students, professionals and caregivers to enhance communication with people who are at high risk of total exclusion due to severe intellectual disability. 2. Training students from several disciplines which deal with specialized communication (education, psychology, interpreting and speech therapy) to deepen their knowledge of intellectual disability and learn strategies and resources to better intervene with ID subjects in their future profession using the intellectual products developed within the project. 3. Offering training to professionals, families and caregivers using the intellectual products developed within the project. 4. Promoting actions to create awareness of the needs of people suffering rare diseases which hinders communication by means of organizing intensive training activities, promoting mobility of students within the consortium, disseminating findings in webinars, conferences, multiplier events and open access academic publications. Consortium: University of Malaga https://ecplusproject.uma.es/ Gent University https://www.ugent.be/en/ghentuniv/principles/internationalisation/projects.htm Hospital Parc Taulí http://www.tauli.cat/i3pt/projectes-internacionals/projectes-en-curs Universidad de Klagenfurt https://www.aau.at/gebaerdensprache-und-hoerbehindertenkommunikation/forschung/ The Consortium gathered three academic institutions, the University of Malaga (Spain) which coordinated the project and worked in the areas of psychology, interpreting and ICT tools; The University of Gent (Belgium), specialized in community interpreting, the University of Klagenfurt (Austria), a reference institution in sign language and Hospital Parc Taulí (Barcelona), a reference medical institution in quality research on syndromes, rare diseases and intervention. Courses, research materials, publications and ICT tools have been elaborated by using comprehensive methodology structure that joined synergies of the various disciplines involved. Regarding Psychology and intervention, the methodology was focused on the total communication approach. Multimodality approaches were adopted by interpreting researches and ITC tools were developed by means of agile development methodologies. Medical research provided crucial information for syndromes characteristics and their communication needs. Objectives met: 1. To create a pedagogical portal and an application for iOS and Android systems which offers open educational resources based on scientific, medical and psychology reference sources. Both offers tools and software based on total communication approach, sign language and multimodal resources in the languages of the Consortium (Dutch, Spanish, Catalan, German). Syndromes and communication documents are also available in English. 2. Training in the four institutions for students and other stakeholders: Courses and seminars were offered in Parc Taulí, University of Malaga, University of Klagenfurt and University of Gent. Intensive training for students, professionals and students’ mobility were completed. Webinars were also offered to university students, professionals and families who are involved with the care and intervention of people with intellectual disability. 3. Intellectual products, ITC tools and other resources were tested with stakeholders in the four institutions, in day care centers, associations, professional groups and specialized seminars for students. 4. The collaboration with European partners in joint research and publishing of project findings have been effectively met by the Consortium. 5. The dissemination of the project activities has been fruitful as we have developed networking collaboration with other external institutions and organizations, we presented results in prestigious international conferences, we produced a considerable amount of publications during the life spam of the project and we provided the ground for thesis research and for inclusion of EC+ project contents in academic programs. 6. The project results will be sustainable, the website will be open and maintained for two years and all the products are available from our website at https://ecplusproject.uma.es/. Potential target groups: 1. University students who will be future professionals (teachers, speech therapists, psychologists, sign language interpreters, community interpreters) can empower other target groups such as disabled subjects and healthcare professionals and caregivers who work with them with the necessary scientific information, strategies and tools for effective communication. Students in the three academic institutions and the hospital have benefited from the offered training and resources. 2. People suffering severe intellectual disability due to rare diseases which hinder communication who could improve their quality of life with access to helpful communication and interaction with others. 3. Other stakeholders such as professionals, family caregivers and all of whom have been directly involved in the testing of tools and software. 4. Universities and political institutions who could take initiatives to promote inclusion of EC+ project contents and materials in their programs or issue new laws to guarantee the right of people with intellectual disability to effective communication. Main results: Intellectual outputs The main results include the following items which can be downloaded from the project website: 1. A pedagogical portal with multimodal communication resources in the four languages of the Consortium. 2. A mobile application for Android and iOS displaying the resources compiled to be used easily by disabled people, professionals and caregivers. 3. Four training online courses for healthcare, educational and interpreting students and other related stakeholders on sign language, total communication, multimodality for interpreters to communicate with disable people. 4. Scientific medical guides on syndromes and intervention documents in English, Spanish, Dutch, Catalan and German. 5. A multilingual PDF book as result of the international conference and multiplier event held at the end of the project which includes works related to our research lines. 6. An additional research volume based on the project products and their implementation elaborated by Consortium researcher from the four institutions. Additional activities included an intensive training course for Higher Education, students’ mobility, International Conference and Multiplier event, webinars, publications related to the project by researchers and presentations in conferences. A more detailed description will be found in the attachment of results Impact indicators On participating organizations: 1.Higher education students in each of the institutions have benefited from a training for special needs and total communication that will mean an added value to their future profession. Participants in the training modules provided a very positive feedback after completing the courses. 2. Training for communication with subjects suffering severe intellectual disability has been extended to disciplines such as medicine, nursing, interpreting etc. in the four institutions. All this has been very well received among the participants in the training activities and among the mobility students who have evaluated it very positively and who requested that the training courses could be offered again in future academic years. 3. High participation in the organized activities (training, conferences, publications, etc.) and positive feedback. 4. Interest and positive feedback on the application in the four institutions, active dissemination of participating institutions. 5. Interest of other prestigious institutions establishing networking collaboration and international associations of rare diseases that are dedicated to the attention of the intellectually disabled to work with the methodology of the project. 6. Support of political institutions and organizations related to disability which participated in events and made statements in favor of EC+ project. All of this indicates that dissemination has contributed to raise awareness, to promote inclusion and to improve communication with people who suffer from severe intellectual disability. Therefore, they could be able to improve their quality of life and that of the professionals who work with them. On other stakeholders: Associations, families and people who suffer severe intellectual disability had access to the resources and applications in the four institutions. They welcomed the methodology, training and resources. Effective communication results in less stressful situations in daily routines, satisfaction, better attention within healthcare, school, leisure or legal contexts. All in all, it made possible a happier life for the disabled. For professionals and family caregivers the provision of training and easy-to-use ICT resources produced a positive implication in their daily work and self-confidence since they can deal with the difficult situations that occur with people suffering from severe intellectual disability. Surveys on satisfaction regarding training, ICT tools and multimodal resources was very positive. The project raised interest and enthusiastic feedback response on the part of the professionals, users and caregivers. Schools, daycare centers, disabled people associations, regional institutions related to disability, healthcare students’ associations, European institutions etc. have supported our project as collaborators and make possible for us to test project’s results, to train students and to receive the most valuable feedback. Suggestions to further this research in future projects have been recommend by users and other stakeholders.