“ADAPEI-TRANSPORT”: A GPS Based Mobile App for Learning Paths and Improving Autonomy for Young Adults Having Intellectual Disabilities to Take Public Transport

Abstract

Children and young adults with intellectual disabilities (from 10–20 years old) are trained by educators for their journeys taking public transport (buses). This training is done teaching them the different steps and actions to do in a sequential way using photos, pictograms, times, texts (e.g. walk to the bus stop Roppe and take the line 21 direction République, do not forget to press on the stop button to alert to take off, take off at the stop station République, etc.). Currently, specialists from ADAPEI association in Belfort (France) use booklets in which all the steps to follow are printed. With the increasing of the use of mobile apps in Assistive Technology, the aim of this partnership between Altran and ADAPEI from Belfort is to develop new supports to teach children (from the least to the most autonomous) the paths using GPS mobile and tablet apps before and while doing the journey. Moreover, for the most autonomous children familiarized with the use of apps, two ways of navigation using GPS have been developed. Either using maps showing the path or without using maps showing strategically the actions to do in an ordered way when the user is close to a point of interest. In this article, we will show the first results of the use of the app as a teaching system based on observations with disabled children in different situations, and the difficulties found to detect change of directions in noisy GPS data in cities.