Visual Impact: A Cloud-Based Activity Support System to Facilitate Independence for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities

This project develops an Internet-based system for managing and delivering “on demand” activity prompts to individuals with intellectual disabilities. This product users “cloud” (web based) technology to deliver visual and audio prompts to individuals with cognitive disabilities via a thin-client prompting application that can run on iOS or Android mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and Droid smartphones. This technology enables step-by-step task prompting to be made available to individuals using a consistent interface in any environment. In Phase I, a prototype application is developed and a pilot study conducted to assess the technical merit and feasibility of this approach for facilitating independence. These technologies offer tremendous opportunities for increasing independence of individuals with intellectual disabilities through provision of personalized, real-time activity supports in a multitude of settings, including at school, in the workplace, at home, and in the community.