LifeCompanion, a customisable assistant for people who have difficulty communicating orally

Publications Bank of innovations

LifeCompanion, a customisable assistant for people who have difficulty communicating orally

Centre Mutualiste de Kerpape

Assistive Technology 1

Personalised digital assistant that provides communication assistance and access to information technologies. It is free and open source and facilitates oral communication for people with difficulties.

LifeCompanion is a highly customisable and flexible assistant, so it can be used in different contexts, but it is mainly intended to facilitate computer access and communication. In fact, one of the outstanding features of LifeCompanion is its integrated speech synthesis, which allows users to communicate using speech. LifeCompanion thus aims to promote the social participation and autonomy of its users in areas such as communication, access to information technologies, education and employment. It also contributes to establishing social links, especially with caregivers and professionals close to them.

LifeCompanion works in such a way that it adjusts to the individual’s motor, visual, auditory or cognitive abilities and development. For example, it enables pictographic and phonetic communication, as it includes a vocabulary tree with pictograms and pictures and a customised phoneme communication keyboard. Digital keyboards can also be customised and typing can be accelerated with advanced word prediction. Among other functions, LifeCompanion also facilitates motor accessibility, anticipating movement and with advanced configurations in this area. In this regard, it is important to note that it has been co-designed by and in close collaboration with end users.

Banc d’innovacions

Projecte e-Fabrik - Joves col·laboren amb persones amb discapacitat per crear ajuts funcionals

E-Fabrik, innovative and solidarity solutions for people with disabilities

E-Fabrik is an innovative initiative that brings together young people and individuals with disabilities in a creative community with the aim of jointly conceiving solutions to address the challenges faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.
Imatge d'una habitant del projecte Llar Casa Bloc a l'entrada de l'edifici.

Llar Casa Bloc, Social Housing and Support for Empowering Individuals in Vulnerable Situations

“Llar casa bloc” is a social housing network project promoted by Hàbitat3, providing social support and technological resources to promote autonomy and empowerment among its residents.

Mixed Living, residents who live with and collaborate with highly vulnerable people

Publications Bank of innovations

Mixed Living, residents who live with and collaborate with highly vulnerable people

Tussenvoorziening

Mixed social housing blocks of flats where homeless and economically vulnerable people live together, which is beneficial for both groups. It facilitates access to housing more quickly for many people while the community activities carried out in the buildings promote social reintegration and break down the social isolation and stigmatisation of homeless people.

Mixed Living is a form of housing in which 70% of the people who live there are on low incomes and in need of social housing and the remaining 30% are people who are vulnerable, usually homeless people who are beneficiaries of the Housing First programme. Both parties must comply with the previously established conditions of commitment and rules, mainly regarding the care of the environment they share. Participating in this social accompaniment programme is advantageous for people in the first group, reducing their waiting time for access to social housing.

It is also clearly favourable for homeless people —and not only, because the programme is also aimed at people with a lack of social network or psychological problems— for whom the contact and cohabitation with other residents facilitates their social reintegration. In this sense, the shared housing enables proximity between the two groups with common meeting spaces that make it easier for them to have coffee, watch a football match or look after the courtyard. The project is supervised by professionals who visit the block of flats at least once a week and are responsible for assessing and managing the functioning of the cohabitation.

Banc d’innovacions

Projecte e-Fabrik - Joves col·laboren amb persones amb discapacitat per crear ajuts funcionals

E-Fabrik, innovative and solidarity solutions for people with disabilities

E-Fabrik is an innovative initiative that brings together young people and individuals with disabilities in a creative community with the aim of jointly conceiving solutions to address the challenges faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.
Imatge d'una habitant del projecte Llar Casa Bloc a l'entrada de l'edifici.

Llar Casa Bloc, Social Housing and Support for Empowering Individuals in Vulnerable Situations

“Llar casa bloc” is a social housing network project promoted by Hàbitat3, providing social support and technological resources to promote autonomy and empowerment among its residents.

Codi Colors, inclusive method for learning the piano

Publications Bank of innovations

Codi Colors, inclusive method for learning the piano

Codi Colors

Codi Colors, mètode inclusiu per a l’aprenentatge del piano

Innovative method of musical education designed for people with disabilities to learn to play the piano and enjoy making music. It allows them to feel fulfilled thanks to the practical results of the method, enabling them to play songs and pieces following a score based on basic musical concepts.


Codi Colors –in English, the Colour Code– works by associating each note with a colour. This simplified structure makes musical structures much easier to memorise and learn. It is put into practice through complete graphic and didactic material. Thus, it counts with a book for the student and a support book for teachers and families, in which the methodology and advice for its application are explained.

Both books consist of a repertoire of 57 traditional, popular and signature songs written with the code and accompanied by illustrations. The pieces –all of an accessible level– are arranged according to degree of difficulty and theme, mostly referring to the different seasons of the year. The scores are adapted to make them easier to understand: they are written in treble clef, without time signatures or values, and the size of the staves is large, among other things. In addition to the books, more specifically prepared teaching material –an adapted music booklet and coloured stickers– make it possible to implement the method, which can be perfectly combined with coloured instruments (bells, pipes, bells, horns, carillons, etc.).

Although Codi Colors is mainly aimed at pupils with very diverse special educational needs –physical, sensory, communication, intellectual, mental disorders–, it is not only for these groups. Thus, Codi Colors paves the way for making music and avoids the difficulty of conventional music reading for everyone. It is valid for the initial learning of music -for students at an early age-, for musical awareness and for musical language or instrument classes. In addition, the music learning system works for both group and individual lessons.

Banc d’innovacions

Projecte e-Fabrik - Joves col·laboren amb persones amb discapacitat per crear ajuts funcionals

E-Fabrik, innovative and solidarity solutions for people with disabilities

E-Fabrik is an innovative initiative that brings together young people and individuals with disabilities in a creative community with the aim of jointly conceiving solutions to address the challenges faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.
Imatge d'una habitant del projecte Llar Casa Bloc a l'entrada de l'edifici.

Llar Casa Bloc, Social Housing and Support for Empowering Individuals in Vulnerable Situations

“Llar casa bloc” is a social housing network project promoted by Hàbitat3, providing social support and technological resources to promote autonomy and empowerment among its residents.

Afrolab, Afro-entrepreneurship support programme

Publications Bank of innovations

Afrolab, Afro-entrepreneurship support programme

PretaHub, British Council, Coventry University

Programme to support, promote and boost Afro-entrepreneurship with an exclusive and innovative methodology. With the aim of strengthening the Afro-Brazilian market, Afrolab offers technical and creative training to entrepreneurs. It does so with a special focus on inventiveness and self-knowledge, being a space for growth, learning and personal and professional transformation.


Afrolab is thus a business expansion programme that acts as a talent accelerator and incubator for black, indigenous and Kilombola entrepreneurs. It is the result of the realisation that, despite the fact that Brazil has the largest black population in the world outside the African continent, black consumers are still considered a niche market and entrepreneurs are under-represented. The figures highlight the difficulties faced by Afro-Brazilians when it comes to entrepreneurship, which results in the majority of black entrepreneurs in the country not being registered in the formal economy.

In response to the in-depth analysis of the challenges and specificities of black businesses, Afrolab provides practical tools for business management and is a space for effective creation and production. It consists of workshops that take place within the framework of various festivals organised mainly in Brazil, where several entrepreneurs can participate. The initiative includes self-knowledge activities, creative immersion cycles, apprenticeships, courses and workshops. Thus, it avoids entrepreneurship conceived as a solitary and individualistic process and is committed to forging a community of entrepreneurs, taking into account the unique contribution of each entrepreneur in the process.

The initiative has a systemic perspective: it provides support and training to companies from their conception and origin to the final disposal of the products and services developed. In this way, it aims to help them overcome some of the biggest challenges they face, such as the denial of access to credit, financial literacy and technology. Apart from training courses and exchange and networking sessions, Afrolab opens commercial channels in Brazil and Latin America.

Banc d’innovacions

Projecte e-Fabrik - Joves col·laboren amb persones amb discapacitat per crear ajuts funcionals

E-Fabrik, innovative and solidarity solutions for people with disabilities

E-Fabrik is an innovative initiative that brings together young people and individuals with disabilities in a creative community with the aim of jointly conceiving solutions to address the challenges faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.
Imatge d'una habitant del projecte Llar Casa Bloc a l'entrada de l'edifici.

Llar Casa Bloc, Social Housing and Support for Empowering Individuals in Vulnerable Situations

“Llar casa bloc” is a social housing network project promoted by Hàbitat3, providing social support and technological resources to promote autonomy and empowerment among its residents.

Startblok, self-managed housing for local youth and young refugees

Publications Bank of innovations

Startblok, self-managed housing for local youth and young refugees

Woonstichting De Key, Ajuntament d’Amsterdam, Socius Wonen

An innovative model that addresses the housing needs of both young people and refugees. It promotes the integration of young people from different backgrounds who have the common goal of an affordable home. It offers them housing at an affordable price and with a secure rent, which allows young people, both locals and refugees, not to be expelled from the city and to be able to access a job or continue their studies.

Startblok Riekerhaven is aimed at Dutch people and refugees between 18 and 28 years of age who want to get actively involved socially. For a much lower price than the market price, Startblok offers self-contained temporary housing –with a kitchen, a bathroom and a toilet– which is variable in size –around 20 m²– and common areas for each residential group, equipped with a kitchen and a balcony. This space allows for the sharing of life experiences and knowledge, thus contributing to the creation of a community respectful of diversity and reinforcing social cohesion. Residents are selected on the basis of their vulnerability and willingness to be involved in the social and cultural aspects of the project and to commit themselves as a long-term member of the community. The maximum tenancy is five years and, when someone moves on, they are replaced by a new resident of a similar profile –gender, age and educational level– to maintain the balance and diversity of the project.

At Startblok, equal and respectful treatment of all residents is key, as well as the coexistence of very different cultures, languages, customs and ways of doing things. The community functions through the self-management and self-organisation of the residents themselves, with spaces to elaborate and implement their initiatives, both for the formation of community and social cohesion and for the day-to-day maintenance of the model, such as the selection of new tenants and the management of applications. It is this way that a comfortable and pleasant living environment is created, where everyone feels welcome, valued and supported; in short, a home. This housing model thus makes it easier for refugees –who have just arrived in a new country– to build friendships and contacts and to rebuild their lives. It is thus an innovative example of how to address the needs of refugees in a positive way, while providing much-needed affordable housing for young people.

Banc d’innovacions

Projecte e-Fabrik - Joves col·laboren amb persones amb discapacitat per crear ajuts funcionals

E-Fabrik, innovative and solidarity solutions for people with disabilities

E-Fabrik is an innovative initiative that brings together young people and individuals with disabilities in a creative community with the aim of jointly conceiving solutions to address the challenges faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.
Imatge d'una habitant del projecte Llar Casa Bloc a l'entrada de l'edifici.

Llar Casa Bloc, Social Housing and Support for Empowering Individuals in Vulnerable Situations

“Llar casa bloc” is a social housing network project promoted by Hàbitat3, providing social support and technological resources to promote autonomy and empowerment among its residents.

Tiflolibros, digital library for people with visual impairment

Publications Bank of innovations

Tiflolibros, digital library for people with visual impairment

Fundació Williams, ABC – OMPI, ISOC, Ashoka, COPIDIS

Spanish-speaking digital library with free access for the visually impaired. It counts on more than 60,000 books –in text files– that can be downloaded and read from any adapted device with a screen reader programme.

Tiflolibros is the first internet library specifically designed and available for Spanish-speaking people with some kind of visual impairment –blind and visually impaired people– or other difficulties –dyslexia and literacy learning disorders– that prevent access to reading. They can also use the institutions that offer support and services to these groups. The aim of the project is to extend access to reading and information by taking advantage of new technologies, thus contributing to improving the quality of life and favouring the autonomy of visually impaired people.

The library is built as a network, based on the contributions of books that various users and institutions digitise and works provided in digital files by the publishers and authors themselves. Once the files are digitised, it is with the help of a screen reader programme that the devices can output the written texts in the form of an artificial voice or as tactile lines in Braille.

Both access to the library and the downloading of books are free of charge once the registration process is completed. In order to register, it is necessary to provide a series of personal data and to prove the disability or difficulty in accessing conventional reading by presenting a disability certificate or card or a psycho-pedagogical or medical report. Currently, the Tiflolibros library is present in 48 countries and reaches more than 10,000 users with some kind of visual disability. Beyond that, the library is also a space for exchange and contact between visually impaired people from all over the world.

Banc d’innovacions

Projecte e-Fabrik - Joves col·laboren amb persones amb discapacitat per crear ajuts funcionals

E-Fabrik, innovative and solidarity solutions for people with disabilities

E-Fabrik is an innovative initiative that brings together young people and individuals with disabilities in a creative community with the aim of jointly conceiving solutions to address the challenges faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.
Imatge d'una habitant del projecte Llar Casa Bloc a l'entrada de l'edifici.

Llar Casa Bloc, Social Housing and Support for Empowering Individuals in Vulnerable Situations

“Llar casa bloc” is a social housing network project promoted by Hàbitat3, providing social support and technological resources to promote autonomy and empowerment among its residents.

Confidant, an application for remote care of children and the elderly

Publications Bank of innovations

Confidant, an application for remote care of children and the elderly

Confidant

A technological tool that facilitates the care of people who need regular care or supervision, especially dependent elderly people and minors. It reduces the worry and anguish of not being able to locate loved ones and allows vulnerability to be addressed through innovative technology.

The Confidant app works in such a way that it allows access to mobile devices –phones, smart watches, tablets, etc.– of the people to be cared for. It makes it possible to geolocate them in real time and contact them easily to ensure their well-being at all times. In addition, the app has several functions that can be configured: obtaining a record of activity –of the applications consulted, calls made and sites visited by the controlled device–, partial blocking –of certain applications– or total blocking of the device, preventing the linked device from being switched off and receiving notifications in the event that it has a low battery level, among others. It also has an anti-theft function, allowing the user to know the location in real time and to avoid a forced shutdown of the device.

It is, therefore, a highly personalised tool, adaptable to the diverse needs –mainly depending on age– of the confidants or people receiving care. Confidant can be especially useful for educating children to make good use of technology and avoid situations of cyberbullying. In the case of older people, the option of a smart watch may be relevant for people who are not used to the use of new technologies.

Confidant is easy to download and allows a one-week free trial. It guarantees security, privacy and transparency. To avoid potential misuse, the app cannot be installed in stealth: whenever it is activated, a notification is sent to the monitored device. In this sense, it allows the option to activate these functions only in case of emergency, only when the person does not respond to several calls.

Banc d’innovacions

Projecte e-Fabrik - Joves col·laboren amb persones amb discapacitat per crear ajuts funcionals

E-Fabrik, innovative and solidarity solutions for people with disabilities

E-Fabrik is an innovative initiative that brings together young people and individuals with disabilities in a creative community with the aim of jointly conceiving solutions to address the challenges faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.
Imatge d'una habitant del projecte Llar Casa Bloc a l'entrada de l'edifici.

Llar Casa Bloc, Social Housing and Support for Empowering Individuals in Vulnerable Situations

“Llar casa bloc” is a social housing network project promoted by Hàbitat3, providing social support and technological resources to promote autonomy and empowerment among its residents.

La Mesita, a virtual desk for the reading development of children with disabilities

Publications Bank of innovations

La Mesita, a virtual desk for the reading development of children with disabilities

CEDETi UC

Free application that, through play and exploration, facilitates the process of learning to read and write in children with disabilities through technologies based on inclusive education.


The way in which the exploration is proposed, autonomous and without order, is a way of learning that helps in the construction of learning to read, facilitates an enrichment of vocabulary and familiarization with elements of reading awareness.


The virtual desk is designed with different activity paths, which are chosen and adapted to the needs of each child. At first, an understanding of the initial level of the different dimensions to be worked on is made, in order to select the most appropriate games and design a personalized program that helps and encourages reading. The activities can be modified according to the child’s evolution.


It is a flexible virtual tool with four dimensions. First, the development of oral comprehension is done through the viewing of videos, reading texts, and activities such as sorting stories as they are narrated. Phonological awareness is worked on through the fragmentation and creation of words, with the support of drawings, the identification of sounds and phonics activities with the microphone. At the semantic level, words of the same categories are grouped and questions are asked about the reason for these differentiations. Finally, vocabulary acquisition is done through description games with adjectives to learn their meaning and their use in other contexts.


Banc d’innovacions

Projecte e-Fabrik - Joves col·laboren amb persones amb discapacitat per crear ajuts funcionals

E-Fabrik, innovative and solidarity solutions for people with disabilities

E-Fabrik is an innovative initiative that brings together young people and individuals with disabilities in a creative community with the aim of jointly conceiving solutions to address the challenges faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.
Imatge d'una habitant del projecte Llar Casa Bloc a l'entrada de l'edifici.

Llar Casa Bloc, Social Housing and Support for Empowering Individuals in Vulnerable Situations

“Llar casa bloc” is a social housing network project promoted by Hàbitat3, providing social support and technological resources to promote autonomy and empowerment among its residents.

Espai Obert, an alternative service to institutionalization for people with severe psychosocial disabilities.

Publications Bank of innovations

Espai Obert, an alternative service to institutionalization for people with severe psychosocial disabilities.

Fundació Support-Girona Foundation and Healthcare Assistance Institute (IAS)

Alternative resource to institutionalization for people with severe psychosocial disabilities, which offers them social and health support based on the pact and their free will to use the services of the facility.

It is aimed at people who are in a situation of social exclusion and even homelessness, due to mental and behavioral disorders or substance abuse problems, and who have no family or social support or financial resources,

Espai Obert aims to reduce the stigma of these people and overcome the barriers that stand in the way of their social and community inclusion. The intervention methodology is based on low demand and free use.

As a first phase of intervention, the aim is to cover the basic needs of hygiene and food. Therefore, the service is equipped with a kitchen, living and dining room, washing machines, patio and shower and hygiene areas, and the users participate in the routines of the center (preparing meals, laundry, taking care of the garden…). Once this first phase has been achieved, a bond of trust is built, in order to work on the development, skills and well-being of each person, as well as socialization with other people in the space and other resources in the area.

This pioneering intervention model is one of the tools to be deployed in Catalonia in the process of reconversion and transformation of long-stay psychiatric hospitalization with functional recovery and life project units based on the successful experience of the counties of Girona, where in 2004 the long-stay psychiatric hospital in the former Salt Psychiatric Hospital was closed, generating a network of community mental health and addiction services, with alternative resources.


Banc d’innovacions

Projecte e-Fabrik - Joves col·laboren amb persones amb discapacitat per crear ajuts funcionals

E-Fabrik, innovative and solidarity solutions for people with disabilities

E-Fabrik is an innovative initiative that brings together young people and individuals with disabilities in a creative community with the aim of jointly conceiving solutions to address the challenges faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.
Imatge d'una habitant del projecte Llar Casa Bloc a l'entrada de l'edifici.

Llar Casa Bloc, Social Housing and Support for Empowering Individuals in Vulnerable Situations

“Llar casa bloc” is a social housing network project promoted by Hàbitat3, providing social support and technological resources to promote autonomy and empowerment among its residents.

Park4Dis, making it easier for people with reduced mobility to find a parking space

Publications Bank of innovations

Park4Dis, making it easier for people with reduced mobility to find a parking space

Park4Dis

Digital platform for the management and access to parking spaces reserved for people with reduced mobility.

It is a free webapp that offers users the location of parking spaces for people with reduced mobility. Once the space is located it directs to the place through GoogleMaps. It also informs about the specific rules of each municipality that apply to people with disabilities, and shows the restricted traffic zones of each municipality. The application also allows offline use by downloading maps.

Park4Dis has registered more than 39,000 parking spaces in Spain for people with reduced mobility, located in 230 different municipalities. To obtain information on existing spaces, it relies on the collaboration of local social entities and volunteers who help to map them. The service also works with public institutions, vIt is an approach aimed at changing the paradigm from smart cities to smart human cities.

Park4Dis was born from the difficulty that people with reduced mobility often have in finding the location of reserved parking spaces, in addition to the lack of knowledge of the regulations by many municipalities. That is why its transversality allows to gather all the information in a single App, promoting accessible and interurban mobility.

Banc d’innovacions

Projecte e-Fabrik - Joves col·laboren amb persones amb discapacitat per crear ajuts funcionals

E-Fabrik, innovative and solidarity solutions for people with disabilities

E-Fabrik is an innovative initiative that brings together young people and individuals with disabilities in a creative community with the aim of jointly conceiving solutions to address the challenges faced by people with disabilities in their daily lives.
Imatge d'una habitant del projecte Llar Casa Bloc a l'entrada de l'edifici.

Llar Casa Bloc, Social Housing and Support for Empowering Individuals in Vulnerable Situations

“Llar casa bloc” is a social housing network project promoted by Hàbitat3, providing social support and technological resources to promote autonomy and empowerment among its residents.