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The possibilities of digital technologies for people with disabilities or the older population are wide-ranging, but in order for all people to be able to participate in an increasingly “digital world” it is important to quality professionals and organizations so that they are able to support, advise and help with potential risks. The article presents results of a survey among health and social care professionals in seven European countries with regard to qualification in this domain and introduces the European Union funded project DDSkills. The project aims to qualify health and social care professionals in areas such as digital Assistive Technologies, Smart Home, Robotics, Virtual and Augmented Reality and Brain-Computer-Interface, as well as their implementation and application, in order to support people with disabilities or functional decline to increase their independence and social participation.
Smart home technologies, such as Internet of Things devices have great potential to support older people to live for longer in their own homes. Yet individuals with communication, memory and dexterity problems often cannot use such technologies. Through a co-design, participatory approach the needs and problems experienced by older people and their supporters were explored to ascertain how they could be enabled to use Smart home technologies. The solution that was developed, IntraVox, is a virtual hub that enables connectivity from different resources and devices based on the sensor data that is being collected in the house. IntraVox sends various commands to a voice-enabled personal assistant which in return controls smart home devices. This approach can improve the usability of voice-enabled personal assistants by removing the necessity for the user to remember and pronounce specific commands whilst also reinforcing the syntax and the usefulness of those commands. This discussion describes the development process and user-feedback of the IntraVox solution.