FYI: New internet software for people with cognitive disabilities

Hello everyone,

For your information:
I read about this interesting new Windows software for people with cognitive
disabilities. This Dutch program is called 'Pilotus' and allows them to
mail, chat and draw in a safe environment. They can only exchange messages
with people in their own Pilotus group. This group can include friends but
also the family members and mentor of the user.

The software uses icons for all the functions and has text-to-speech
functionality that can read all the text and functions out loud. New
messages are identified by the picture of the sender. The program also
supports various icon libraries that are in use in the Netherlands,
including Bliss, PCS, Bèta, Pictogram, Picture This, Weerklank, Rebus and
Beeldlezen. 

The project website is available at: http://www.pilotus.nl. Select 'Hoe
werkt Pilotus?' in the bottom right corner to watch a Flash movie about the
project. The movie is in Dutch but the images are so clear it should be easy
to follow for people who don't speak Dutch. 

Yvette Hoitink
Heritas, Enschede, the Netherlands
E-mail: y.p.hoitink@heritas.nl
WWW: http://www.heritas.nl

Received on Saturday, 22 January 2005 10:10:45 UTC