This R&D&i initiative addresses the creation of technological aids that guarantee the support that people with disabilities need to access employment in a normal setting.

The project combines work methodologies that have been designed for people with disabilities along with Information Technology in order to create innovative solutions that allow people with disabilities to be included in the job market. The methodologies and technologies that will serve as a starting point are:

• Planning Centred on Individuals
• Employment with Support
• Multimedia and Web Technologies Developed by the University of Valencia

The 'Social Networks to Support Professionals with Disabilities' project will create new Information Technology tools that will foster Employment with Support as part of the Planning Centred on Individuals portal called www.miradasdeapoyo.org.

These tools, which will be defined in the early project phases, include:

• Information Technology aids to facilitate vocational guidance through generic descriptions of fairly common jobs (office assistant, stock clerk, installer, etc.). These descriptions will include the requirements and functions to be carried out.
• Information Technology tools to create CVs with the help of a support group and to prepare for interviews.
• Tools to define dreams related to employment, objectives and support plans to help reach them, visual maps of relations in the work environment, labour competency maps, etc.
• Information Technology aids to provide mentoring during the careers of workers with disabilities.
• Coordination between the work coach and hiring businesses in order to facilitate real time problem resolution. In summary, these aids will promote the operation of a social network that supports professionals with disabilities, a network in which those individuals closest to the person with a disability will collaborate together with business owners, work colleagues and the work coach. This network will be tested experimentally during the last phases of the project.

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