CSUN'97:

This paper describes the technical solutions and preliminary results of one international project, which addresses the development of a tele-working environment for users with cerebral palsy. The work started in 1996, involves Greek and Portuguese institutions in the areas of rehabilitation and systems engineering, and has the following three main objectives: to set up an "intelligent office” where a home systems infrastructure (also called "intelligent home or "intelligent buildings" technology) enables the users to remotely control their environment; to provide the facilities required to access local (mainly AAC) and remote communications (mainly by telephone, fax or e-mail); and to provide access to Windows applications commonly used in the office environment. A Windows'95 application was developed to provide an integrated interface able to meet these three requirements and a first prototype of the basic system is currently being evaluated at the Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation Centre in Porto. An Internet-based technical training programme is also being developed within this project, which will enable the users in their homes or daily centres to update their knowledge in all areas pertaining to their tele--working activity (or in other areas as well). The current work is partly an extension of a previous TIDE project (TP1108, HS-ADEPT) and is supported by the European Commission under the HORIZON initiative for employment.