ITP@BEF

Development and testing of a software tool for the realisation of barrier-free e-forms using interactive explanatory elements

In the project, a software tool for the engineering-based creation and use of barrier-free e-forms (BEF) was developed and tested. These e-forms are characterised by the fact that they contain so-called interactive "explanatory elements" which facilitate the use of the forms for persons with cognitively conditioned language problems, referred to in the project as clients. While the present project focused on the development of a software tool for BEF creation and use, the complementary research project inBEF dealt with the research and development of innovative explanatory elements.

The help and participation planning carried out in counselling interviews for people with impairments served as an exemplary area of application. A PDF-based form from the project partner IPH - the so-called ITP (Integrated Participation Planning) - already existed for this purpose, as well as a version of it in easy language. This ITP form has already been used by the second project partner EVIM for several years and is the basis for financing the assistance services for the clients.

However, the ITP also represents a (conversation) process, which is reflected in some special features of the ITP form and the way it is used. This could be taken into account much better by implementing the BEF in the form of an interactive application, the BEF application, than by means of a classic form document, displayed for example in a PDF reader. For example, the BEF application supports several versions of explanatory elements on a subject, which can be chosen from in order to meet the individual needs of clients. In this respect, the ITP form implemented as BEF was further developed in the course of the project from the original form format to an instrument to support the process of integrated participation planning.

The focus with regard to accessibility was on persons with limited communication skills who are handicapped in different ways both linguistically (writing and reading) and in communicative expression. These users are the primary target group of a BEF considered in the project. The development focused on usage scenarios in which a client fills out the form together with another person, e.g. a professional carer or a relative. Called assistants in the project, these users form another large user group.

Within the framework of the project carried out, two central software-technical results were developed and tested:

• the BEF tool for systematic creation and use, especially for testing accessible or low-barrier e-forms, and
• the ITP-BEF implementation, which represents an exemplary implementation of the existing PDF form of the ITP (integrated partial participation planning) as a BEF.

The BEF tool comprises as partial results the BEF meta-model, the BEF authoring tool for the creation of forms and the BEF application for the interactive use of the forms. The tool follows a model-based approach, with models of BEF existing at three levels of abstraction:

• the meta-model, which contains the building blocks and construction rules for form creation,
• the empty forms created with them (form model) and
• the concrete form contents of individual forms (form instances).