Today the web, welcome news for the future of people with autism. It is building a house with home automation facilities enabling people with autism can live with the greatest number of possible facilities. The initiative is the Autismo Burgos, and the place is called Casa del Olivo.
home automation facilities for people with autism
One of the challenges of Burgos Autism Association is to provide a future quality of life for people with this disability. The dream is closer because they have managed to enable a home computer, converted into a home that will house 12 adult with autism. La Casa del Olivo, that's the name of the place has all kinds of technological innovations to facilitate their independence and promote the independence of users. The Robotics Institute at the University of Valencia and the University of Birmingham are working with the Autism Association Burgos for over 8 years to provide programs that help people with this disability to organize the space and anticipate the situations of life, to ensure greater autonomy.
"They study and we experience, then we combining the knowledge and practice," said José Luis Cuesta, the head of Services Autismo Burgos adults. This technology involves the installation in the Casa del Olivo of a control system, detection and security, and integration of new information technologies to improve communication between users and workers that accompany them, facilitate understanding of the environment and promote their autonomy, as well as enabling the improvement of integrated housing service.
The incorporation of these systems in the implementation of the housing service allows not only to ensure security, but through specific adjustments, make the most of this collective deficits: communication, planning time, understanding and solving environmental problems, among others. These tools facilitate the autonomy of the inhabitants. "Through automation is encouraged to have more independence, thanks to a system of notices to the central computer can check whether a user of the house has been raised or if a door has opened," said José Luis Cuesta.
addition, the Olive House has new technologies for people with autism. "With touch screens, working with pictograms, they show how they are" sick, happy, tired, sad ... - and what activity want to do at that time and over a week, "explains Cuesta. "It's a simple system that allows them to touch and move photos through visual language." In addition, other touch screens to help users of the property to "understand that there are times to wait, with a visual clock."
Similarly, we have tried to construct a building that respects the environment, which in its daily operations cause minimal ecological impact and is responsible in terms of sustainability. In this sense, the house has been equipped with solar thermal collectors and systems for efficient lighting and water conservation along with a novel model that captures heat energy from underground and allows us to save on fuel consumption and reducing harmful CO2 emissions.
