The care needs of people with disabilities vary greatly and can also change over time.

Among those affected, there is a desire to maintain a life that is as independent and autonomous as possible within their own home. The skillful use of smart home / AAL technologies, which are commonly available and affordable today, can contribute largely in enabling people with disabilities to participate actively, autonomously and safely in daily life.

However, the necessary know-how is lacking: manufacturers of smart technologies are not aware of the special needs of people with disabilities; people with disabilities and their caregivers are unaware of what technologies exist.

With this thought, we start the work on project My Sweet Smart Home (Project number: 2021-1-DE02-KA220-VET-000033058). The SWEET HOME project aims to open up a new world of opportunities and possibilities for persons with differing types of disabilities (down syndrome, blindness and visual impairment, hearing impairment, muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer's disease, cystic fibrosis, kidney disease) through smart-home technology. We aim to build a bridge, bringing together people with different types of disabilities and needs structures, carers, and technology developers in an exchange and dissolve the knowledge gap.

We will look to encourage the use of smart home technology to improve the living situation of persons with disabilities in various identified areas of life: health care and monitoring, personal care, comfort, home security, entertainment, cleaning, mobility in the home, energy saving, social participation and e-learning.

The project started with our kick-off meeting in Fürth (Nuremberg), Germany held from 31th of March to the 1st of April 2022. During the meeting, the partners had the opportunity to outline the key steps for each of the project results.

EASPD is the leader of the first package, which will result in the creation of 7 reports/guides which outline the different challenges in daily life faced by each of these disability groups and technical solutions proposed by experts in home automation and Ambient Assisted Living systems to address these needs.

The second package will involve the creation of online courses on several topics with step-by-step instructions and practical exercises to ensure set up of appropriate smart home technologies in one's own home is successful.

Finally, we will build an innovative learning platform with free access to all training material that works on different devices such as PCs, laptops, tablets or smartphones. This will be tested by different stakeholders.

If you want to stay updated with the project, you can follow the official social pages: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.