Title: ITS-LAGUNTXO: enhancing the integration of people with intellectual disabilities

Authors: Angel Conde, Karmele Lopez De Ipina, Mikel Larranaga, Nestor Garay-Vitoria, Eloy Irigoyen, Aitzol Ezeiza, Jokin Rubio, Juan Miguel Lopez

Addresses: University of the Basque Country, E.U.P.Donostia, 20018, Plaza de Europa, 1, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain. ' University of the Basque Country, E.U.P.Donostia, 20018, Plaza de Europa, 1, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain. ' University of the Basque Country, E.U.P.Donostia, 20018, Plaza de Europa, 1, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain. ' University of the Basque Country, E.U.P.Donostia, 20018, Plaza de Europa, 1, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain. ' University of the Basque Country, E.U.P.Donostia, 20018, Plaza de Europa, 1, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain. ' University of the Basque Country, E.U.P.Donostia, 20018, Plaza de Europa, 1, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain. ' Fundacio LEIA Centro de Desarrollo Tecnologico, Parque Tecnologico de Alava, C/ Leonardo Da Vinci, 11, 01510-Minano (Alava), Spain. ' University of Lleida, Pl. Victor Siurana, 1, Lleida, 25003, Spain

Abstract: In order to face the problems that people with disabilities find in their integration into social and working environments, one of the key issues is the implementation of solutions offered by new technologies by using what experts call |support technologies|. The development of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) based on mobile platforms offers new perspectives for better integration of people with disabilities. The LAGUNTXO System aims to achieve the performance of human tutors, going a step beyond classical tutoring systems that perform just organisational tasks. Due to the wide diversity of people with disabilities, an intelligent structure that may achieve a convenient tutoring system configuration for each case has been incorporated. With an appropriate design of the structure and architecture of this task handler, it is very easy to operate by stakeholders. An automaton-based mechanism has been performed to technologically adapt the large amount of possibilities related to the interaction between people with disabilities, the task that is going to be made autonomously by users and the mobile system elements. In this paper, LAGUNTXO architecture, operational ways and a pilot study are presented.

Keywords: disabled people; disabilities; intellectual disabilities; intelligent tutoring systems; ITS; integration enhancement; social computing; humanistic computing; support technologies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSHC.2010.032691

International Journal of Social and Humanistic Computing, 2010 Vol.1 No.3, pp.314 - 330

Published online: 12 Apr 2010 *

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