MY SWEET SMART HOME

On 21st of November 2022 at our CEIPES office, was held a roundtable on Hearing Impairment and Smart Home Technologies for the MY SWEET SMART HOME project (2021-1-DE02-KA220-VET-000033058).

It consists in a co-financed Erasmus+ project which aims to create training courses on an interactive learning e-platform, which content will deal with the installation of various home automation technologies in the home environment. The objective of the project is to generate new opportunities and possibilities for people with disabilities and special needs to live an autonomous, safe, healthy, comfortable and stimulating life.

The project analyses the needs of different types of disabilities, including Down syndrome, blindness and visual impairment, hearing impairment, muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer’s disease, cystic fibrosis and renal disease.

Within the framework of this project, in order to achieve the objectives set, we organised a roundtable, aimed at understanding specifically the needs and problems of the target group that we should take into account in order to better develop the results of the project, in this case hearing impaired people.

For this purpose, we have gathered people who gave different perspectives on the needs and problems suffered by people with hearing problems in their homes. We were joined by experts from the design and domotics sector, people with hearing impairment, who are also councils from a deaf association in Palermo, and a sign language translator.

It has been a very enriching experience for all groups, as ideas have been exchanged about possible technological solutions to the needs expressed by the users with hearing disability. An example could be a band that translates sounds into vibrations, patterns of vibrations made of frequencies or a hardware that captures the needs of the environment and sends them on mobile devices, among others.

At the end of our roundtable, the participants came to a shared conclusion: in the world of home automation and smart home solutions, it’s necessary to begin thinking about tools and instruments that can be used and accessible by everyone.

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