NavigAbile project

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

NavigAbile is an internet-based system aimed to provide an innovative way to access web content to people affected by motor and communicational disabilities. It offers a bundle of services designed, on one side, to enhance web interface and accessibility to contents and, on the other, to supply communicational and relational tools.
These services are tailored to support disabled people, mainly young ones and those accustomed to use multimodal communication tools (alternative communication techniques based on the use of symbols, images and photos such as Augmentative Alternative Communication),
allowing them to:

recover, empower and exploit their skills, mainly the relational and communicational ones;
use a multimodal interface which may be tailored to the needs and profile of the single user
(and not vice-versa);
access, directly or with the help of another person, to the same contents and services offered to every person of their age (educational contents, news, relation and communication services,...), facilitating the integration of all users on the web;
overcome the "digital divide" related to the web (needed human support, expensive ad hoc software and hardware, need of customised working stations).

The project's target

Navigabile is addressed:

for what concerns the communicational services, to children and youths but also to adults with different kinds of disabilities who can't communicate using verbal language but only through multimodal communication systems (Augmentative Alternative Communication)
for what concerns the enabling services, to everyone who can take advantage of the fruition of websites and electronic contents, using in a personalised way all the different functionalities of the profiling system which are applied to all
the contents that have been rendered in a "NavigAbile" way.

Therefore, in detail,the target of the project is composed by:

children and youths with pathologies which jeopardize in a serious and specific way the possibilities of relations and communications (development disease and dysphasia )
adults with damages due to neuro-degenerative pathologies
people with cognitive disabilities, whether or not they are associated to a neuro-motor pathology, due to encephalic, traumatic or vascular lesions.

The project

The project begun with a first testing phase (years 2003-2004) conducted with a limited group of young disable people and a group of students from the secondary school. This testing resulted in an increase in the number and tuning of the offered services.

In a second phase(2004-2005), the development has had three different directions:

Evolution of software services, according to the demands of the first users and of other potential groups of users who had requested to participate (introduction of new communicational services based on the Bliss language developed in collaboration with the Politecnico of Milan University and increase of the personalization potentialities of the user's interface)
Creation of the first web sites and production of a first set of educational contents in a NavigAbile version. Exhibition of Antonello da Messina, A. C. Milan, Meteorete.net which provides continuously updated weather forecasts, a section of the web site of the Benedetta D'Intino Foundation entitled "Discover the World" (which includes multimedia contents kindly provided from the Aquarium of Genoa), a section, named "Stories on the fly", from the web site of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology in Milan; moreover a section of "NavigAbile contents" has been created which consists in a service providing daily updated news and in a first series of educational and didactical materials created together with a group of mentors from the schools of the province of Brescia and with some mentors of the school Matilda di Canossa of Reggio Emilia.
Diffusion of the communicational and relational services among an increasing number of users and creation of a network of services and experts. (Creation of Regional NavigAbile Centres spread on the national territory, qualified to support the single user or local communities, also thanks to the support of national services such as help desk, training courses, tutoring and information services).

In order to arrive to its actual state of development, the project has created three versions of "enabling services" of NavigAbile gradually more rich and complete: customers now have the use of about 2.500 possible profile combinations to access the contents (educational and didactical courses and daily news service) of the web site www.navigabile.it and of the eight web sites which are today accessible in the NavigAbile version: to those already mentioned three new websites have been added: the website terredimare.it, the information desk for tourism without barriers in Liguria; the Social Rally website which reports the humanitarian initiative promoted by a disabled boy who wanted to share his life experience with some African kids who were in his same conditions; the website of Cooperativa Chiossone, one of the most important institution in Italy that supports people with visual diseases.

Also the communicational services (communicational table, sentence composer, mail, thematic and community billboards) have been gradually enriched in functionalities and are at the moment regularly used by more than 1.000 users all over the national territory.

NavigAbile has achieved, in October 2005, an important recognition, the European Sponsorship Award, obtaining the first price of the category "social and education".

The use of NavigAbile has brought, in the cases until now experienced, the following benefits:

facilitates and speeds up the use of the CAA (Augmentative Alternative Communication) tools for remote and written communication, increasing the abilities of conceptualisation and abstraction;
increases the autonomy and the proactivity of the users, reducing the filter of the operators; increases the accuracy and the possibility of "fixing" what has been written;
encourages motivation to communicate and learn, on the basis of the "communicative results" which have been achieved and of the wider access to electronic contents; in fact a higher use of symbols inserted in the charts and of new symbols has been detected;
it allows the use "always and everywhere" and free of charge ( if a computer and Internet access are available), reducing the electronic barriers which would else exist (cost of the software and difficulties in installing it, bond with one's own pc) and increasing the opportunities of communicating and learning, also in a rehabilitating optic (many clients use NavigAbile at home in the evening)
it promotes social participation, in so far as:

1. it increases the number and frequency of interactions and relations

2. it helps relations in the family and with coevals, also disabled ones

3. it allows the different realities in which the user lives (school, rehabilitation centre, family) to integrate even more and keep in communication
increases the opportunities of working together for the operators and their youths, enhancing the stimulation of the kids.

The activities scheduled for the future constitute the perpetuation and strengthening of what has been done in so far, with the purpose of reinforcing furthermore NavigAbile as an organisational system and as a tool aimed to increase the use of the residual abilities of its users.

Three types of intervention have been planned:

Further diffusion of the use of NavigAbile, based on the existing organisational system (Central Team and 16 Regional Centres), through activities of support and promotion both on a local and national level (communication and involvement of other institutional actors).
Scientific supervising of the use and the benefits obtained from NavigAbile, through specific research protocols oriented towards 3 different "clusters" of users.
Further diffusion of the enabling services in websites and in didactical and informational contents: fulfilment of the pioneer websites (about 10) and diffusion in the highest possible number of other websites which through the use of the enabling services of the NavigAbile architecture allow to have at one's disposal different types of contents (educational/recreational/informative) in the "Navigabile" version. Also the activity of production (accomplished by the Team of Navigabile or others) and publication of didactical and informative contents will be pursued.

If further information is requested or institutions, associations, school or single users have the will to participate to the project taking advantage of our complete offer, you can contact us sending an e-mail to:
segreteria@fondazioneaccenture.it

Partners of the project and external collaborations

Navigabile is an initiative of the Accenture Italian Foundation that doesn't have any profit purposes and aims, through studies and operating initiatives, to promote innovation – in particular technological innovation - meant as a wealth driver for the community. Under an operative point of view the pursuit of our institutional aims is implemented also thanks to the great effort in researching ways of networking with other foundations, institutions, businesses and organisms.

In this spirit, the NavigAbile project has been carried out in partnership with:

Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation: created just after the Second World War by the venerable don Carlo Gnocchi to assure care, rehabilitation and social integration to the mutilated kids and to the people affected by poliomyelitis, the Foundation has, in the course of time, amplified its sphere of action especially in favour of handicapped kids, affected by complex acquired and congenital pathologies, but also in favour of patients of every age who are in need of neurological, orthopaedic, cardiologic, respiratory rehabilitating intervention. From the Eighties, understanding a need which has then become a priority, the foundation's activity has been extended to the assistance of the elderly, most of whom are not self sufficient and in the last years also to the terminal patients with oncological problems and to people in a state of steady coma. The Foundation (recognised ISTITUTO DI RICOVERO E CURA A CARATTERE SCIENTIFICO-IRCCS for the centres of Milan and Florence) has coupled the interventions in favour of these categories with a strong and qualified commitment in research, with a particular attention to the biomedical and biotechnological sectors and to some serious pathologies such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. The commitment to professional training, aimed to help disabled people to find a job and to prepare operators for the social-assistance-sanitary sector through first degree courses and masters, is remarkable. At the present day, the Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation counts more than 3.500 operators and provides its services through a credit regime with the National Sanitary Service in 28 centres, spread in 9 regions, with more than 3600 beds. In 2001 the Foundation was recognised Nongovernmental Organisation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a more direct intervention in developing countries; projects and training programs have taken place or are taking place in Kosovo, Bosnia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, in the region of Tibet and in other parts of the world. In April 2003 the President of the Italian Republic has awarded the Don Gnocchi Foundation with the gold medal for merits concerning public health.

The Foundation cooperates in the definition of the requirements and of the structure of the website, in the creation of tests, in the scientific validation, in the diffusion of the services among the Regional and the NavigAbile Centres.

Francesca Rava Foundation: the Foundation has the institutional aim of helping children in uneasy conditions, in Italy and in the whole world. It carries on activities to make people aware of the problems of childhood, educational activities concerning the rights of children in schools, activities of fund raising for supporting projects directed to children also through distance adoption, diffusion of the idea of charity work, training and transfer of volunteers. The Foundation represents, in Italy, the international organisation N.P.H. (Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos – Our Little Brothers)

The Foundation cooperates in the identification and management of relations with the interlocutors and partners of the project, especially for what concerns schools and pioneer websites, as well as gives support to the conception and creation of the activities of communication and awareness towards the project.

Also some important technological partners have been involved:

HP, that has donated hardware material (pc for the Regional Centres) and hosting services.
Microsoft, that has donated the software licences used for the development and exercise of the NavigAbile architecture and has contributed to the customisation of the content management system used by NavigAbile.>
Politecnico of Milan, that has collaborated in the creation of new services for the sentence composer/Bliss communicator (named WebBliss) and in the service of symbol forecasting, for what concerns the sentence composer in the version for PCS. All this has been done with software tools already created and of Politecnico's property (Bliss2003, Cabaal forecasting module).
Scansoft, that has donated the software for the vocal synthesis used by the test web site and by the structural services and the consultancy for its use.
Studio Delta that has created, free of charge, the on-line course for parents and NaviTutors, who take part in the Navigabile Project.

The project can take advantage of some valuable external collaborations, among which:

The "Matilde di Canossa" high school of Reggio Emilia which has contributed to the production of the didactical contents of the website ("Citizenship" course) and has participated to sessions of tests and architecture of the website.
Mayer-Johnson that has, in the testing phase, donated the PCS images, used by the children for handling the communication charts and that are also partially shown in the dedicated web site.
Exeo Consulting, which support the Navigabile project in the management of the operative activities, handles the relations between the Regional Centres and NavigAbile, provides information to the NaviTutors, to the operators and to the parents of the users of NavigAbile.

Thanks also to Andrea Saretto, Antonio Malafarina and AMA for their precious collaboration.

NavigAbile Services

The NavigAbile services have been created on the basis of the requirements resulted from the work which has been done with users and operators and on the basis of the usability and accessibility tests (accessible from the web site www.NavigAbile.it).

Authentication

The key "Entra in NavigAbile", big-sized and well visible in the Home page, allows the access to the authentication page.

If a user has already enrolled, from this page he can authenticate in a way to visualise the web site, the contents and the navigation according to his parameters of personalisation and access his personal services such as the Communication Table, the List of saved Sentences, the Mail services, the Billboard.

Enrolment

For the users who wish to, it is possible to enrol by calling the nearer Regional Centre or by sending an e-mail of request (references are available on the page of the Regional Centres of the website NavigAbile.it). For the users who are not enrolled it is possible to access to a demo version through the key "Prova NavigAbile" – "Try NavigAbile" - positioned in the authentication page (accessible with the key "Entra nella versione NavigAbile" – "enter the Navigabile version" - in the Home Page). In this way it is possible to test all the services, even if the activities which have been executed will not be memorized.

Personalisation

The personalisation is carried out through a guided path made of seven steps: in the first one the user chooses the type of contrast with which he wants the web page to appear, in the second one he chooses the text complexity, therefore the level of content simplification, in the third step the user decides the font size, in the fourth one he can choose to have all the text written in capital letters, in the fifth step the choice is whether to have PCS and Bliss images or not, in the sixth one the user decides if he would like text scanning and audio support and in the seventh step (available only in case of choice of the audio support) one can choose the speed of the audio. Accessing to the Profile section it is always possible to go back and change one's choices. The content simplification, which is one of the options provided by the NavigAbile architecture, requires the work of an editorial team that creates the contents in a standard version and then proceeds with the synthesis, preparing for each content a synthetic version and a synthetic simplified one.

The planned levels are:

Standard content
Synthetic content,highly readable
Simplified synthetic content

The tools for the calculation of the readability index provided by NavigAbile for the production of texts, created in collaboration with the Politecnico of Milan, are based on the Gulpease index.

The contents of NavigAbile

NavigAbile is composed by a section "Our news" in which articles focused on current events and curiosities are proposed, opportunely selected in a way to attract the interest of youths. The Filter system for contents allows the user to visualise a different version of contents according to the profile he has set. There is also a section named "To the discovery of…" which contains educational and didactical materials in a NavigAbile format. These two sections will be enriched by new contents also thanks to the support of users and operators. Moreover a Publishing System is available which allows operators (mentors, teachers, educators…) to publish didactical and educational contents in a NavigAbile version (lessons, tales, poems…).

Map of the web site

The Home Page permits the access to the accessory pages of the web site (Accessibility, Map, Help, Partner) and to the principal areas:

Get to know NavigAbile – contains information on the project, on the ways to obtain information and enrol, on the services offered by the Regional Centres and the Central Help Desk;
Profile – allows the user to change his profile
Services – contains the Mail management, the Sentence Composer, the Billboard, the Communication Chart, the Category Dictionary, the Alphabetic Dictionary;
NavigAbile websites – contains the list, the description and the links to the "NavigAbile websites";
"To the discovery of…" contains courses, books and novels in a NavigAbile version.

Interactive communication services

The "Service" area is the access point to all the communication services of NavigAbile which are currently active. These services are:

Mail management – allows to read the mails which have been received and to send new mails to one's own contacts, to send mails with attachments and insert the photos of the new contacts
Sentence Composer – contains the complete functionality of sentence writing, both text and symbolic sentences using either NavigAbile images or PCS or Bliss. Every sentence can be corrected during the writing and saved, cancelled, sent by e-mail and printed through a simplified process.
Billboard – allows users to load a text file in the formats DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF and TXT and images in the format GIF and JPG. It also permits to insert comments for every loaded file and to read the comments left by other users, as well as to send a mail to who has inserted a certain file or comment. For the users who are not registered, the site allows the access to a demo version of the billboard. For the registered users, besides the billboards of their centres, also some Theme Bulletin Boards are available, enriched in contents by the consumer's editorial (Music, Sport, Entertainment and TV, Kitchen, Poems and Novels, Nature, Motors).
Communication Table – contains the personal communication table of the user, to be filled through the dictionary with the NavigAbile images matching with the CAA symbols of the paper communication table of the user. It supports both the PCS and the Bliss languages.
Category Dictionary – contains the dictionary of PCS (a subset for the unregistered users) and/or, according to the user's profile, a selection of photographic images expressly selected for NavigAbile and organised according to the standard categories of use of the CAA.
Alphabetic Dictionary – contains the dictionary of PCS (a subset for the unregistered users) and/or, according to the user's profile, a selection of photographic images expressly selected for NavigAbile and organised in alphabetic order in order to simplify the consultation of the operator who assists the disable user during the browsing.