• Project number: F 2535
• Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Status: Ongoing Project
• Planned end: 2025-02-28

Description:

What opportunities do new technologies offer for the inclusion of people with disabilities? What are the barriers and how can they be overcome? How can work in the digital world be organised in a good and humane way for people with disabilities? These central questions are the focus of the project.

At the beginning of the project, a scoping review explored the state of the literature. In a workshop with experts, personas and scenarios were developed that portrayed the work of people with disabilities, taking into account the evolution of assistive technologies and tasks in the near future.

Based on the findings, a focus group study is currently being conducted to ask people with disabilities about the chances and barriers they experience due to the technology used in their workplace. An exploratory field study is also being conducted on the use of no-code platforms in sheltered workshops for people with disabilities. Here, people with cognitive impairments develop chatbots that are used by their colleagues to facilitate their tasks. This approach aims to increase task variability and support the development of new skills that lead to better labour market opportunities.

Based on the results of the project, a model will be further developed that takes into account aspects of task-technology fit and identifies the potential support provided by new technologies as well as new types of barriers.

A key element of the project is to help transfer scientific knowledge into practice. In addition to the research activities, networking with workshops for people with disabilities, developers, academics and other stakeholders in inclusion research has been strengthened. This valuable exchange makes it possible not only to research digital assistance systems in theory, but also to put the results into practice. The aim is to contribute to the human-centred design of work for people with disabilities.