E-collaboration for children with functional disabilities

This paper describes the conceptual development and evaluation of an information technology (IT)-based cooperation system. The system, called CIDC, was developed at the University of Kalmar with the aim of facilitating communication, information, documentation, and collaboration concerning disabled children and their life situation. The study aims at finding out whether a system like this makes rehabilitation/habilitation work more effective. Previous experience shows that in conventional and non-IT-based communication, there are great deficiencies of cooperation between participants and the care, education, and welfare of a disabled child. We hypothesized that the system would improve the quality and overall implementation of efforts planned and carried out. The system has been tried in 8 families, all having a disabled child in the family. A group of 5-12 users in each so-called e-room have cooperated concerning the child's life situation. The result shows that the parents are very satisfied that the system facilitates their work in many respects. The professional caregivers have also experienced obvious advantages, whereas a few, despite the quality-raising cooperation, are afraid it will involve more work. Many of the functions that the system has made available have been viewed positively, but the degree of utilization does not reach the same high level as its estimated usefulness. When the system is controlled by the parents, communication activities and usefulness estimations are higher than when the professionals are responsible. The system has proved easy to implement and has on the whole been felt to be user friendly. The experiment has been generally successful and will continue to be developed in cooperation with parent associations, enabling children with various disabilities to join.