Students from Down Madrid learn about the Internet of Things (IoT) from BlueTC

The Down Syndrome Foundation of Madrid (Down Madrid) and BlueTC have signed an agreement for students of the foundation’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) service to develop ‘I’m like you… Internet of Things’, a project to train students in this new area of technology.

• The project ‘I’m like you… Internet of Things’ consists of designing and developing a learning program on IoT that is cognitively accessible for people with intellectual disabilities.
• The aim of the project is to share the experience developed with other entities that work with people with intellectual impairments.

With the Internet of Things (IoT) the objects that surround us in daily life are connected to the internet. This allows a change in the quality of people’s lives, expanding the opportunities for access to data, specific services in education, security and health care or transport among other fields. All these advantages offered by technology can become barriers, especially for people with intellectual disabilities, if they are not trained to understand its utility.

Blue Telecom Consulting is an international consulting firm specialising in telecommunications that offer services and innovative solutions for operators, system integrators, network equipment manufacturers and companies from all sectors that base their operations and/or products or services on IoT technologies.

For these reasons, through this project, BlueTC and Down Madrid are designing and developing a cognitively accessible IoT training programme for people with intellectual disabilities. The programme is validated by students from Down Madrid’s ICT Service who, through experience-based/experiential learning, will carry out practical activities as well as theoretical training. The aim of this programme is to develop digital thinking in people with intellectual disabilities.

Five young people with intellectual disabilities began their training on 24 October, under the mentorship of professionals from BlueTC and Down Madrid. The training will be extended throughout the 2017/2018 academic year.

This experience can be a reference model for other companies that want to partner with non-profit organisations. Once the project is finalised, the experience developed will be shared with other entities through the platform www.sinbrecha.downmadrid.org. Furthermore, whenever possible, it will be presented in educational and third sector forums.
The Down Syndrome Foundation of Madrid (Down Madrid) is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to work for the full inclusion of people with Down syndrome or other intellectual disabilities and their full social inclusion. The work that Down Madrid has been leading for more than 25 years would not have been possible without the collaboration of the people and entities that support its work.