The Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) is working on new software that should improve the life skills of persons with special needs.
The software, called Dawra Madwarna (a look around us), incorporates and improves upon features and exercises from a number of existing educational and life skills software, all of which are in English.
This particular version developed by FITA is in Maltese and also accessible to different types of needs, which includes exclusive keyboard users and users of screen readers.
“Since we lack the knowhow of a graphical artist, the software may not be the most appealing, but it is highly functional and certainly helps disabled users achieve the desired goals. This makes sure we address gaps in service provision through ICT,” explained Stanley Debono, chief executive officer at FITA.
Dawra Madwarna is being developed together with Sapport centre in Mtarfa. For all such software projects carried out by FITA, the foundation provides the programming and accessibility expertise, while the service partners provide all the multimedia content. The partners work together on the design specifications and end users help FITA with the testing phases.
Joseph Mark Caruana, an employee of the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) assigned full time to FITA, is working on the development of the software while Mr Debono brings in ICT and accessibility expertise, making sure the final product is of high standards and meets the needs of the intended market.
“FITA develops these software products as prototypes, leaving it up to business entities to invest in further design and possibly commercialise them. We do not charge end users for this software, but only for the copying of CDs (if applicable) in order to recover part of the costs. The software is free to distribute –the more the better – so that anyone can benefit and make suggestions for improvement,” added Mr Debono.
FITA’s initiatives in support of persons with special needs were highlighted during the recent annual general meeting. Saviour Cachia, chairman of FITA thanked the board members of FITA, private entities, business partners and Tony Sultana, MITA executive chairman, for their work and support.
Mr Cachia spoke about a particular initiative that supports ICT accessibility certification, a specialised service whereby FITA bears responsibility to verify electronic services and inform clients where improvements can be made. This service relies on the knowledge of disabled employees working within FITA.
Together with consultancy firm EY, the foundation developed a questionnaire that formed the basis for interviews carried out among more than 200 local companies.
The results of this research will be published in the coming weeks and will outline the varied opinions of employers and service providers.
Preliminary results indicate that there is a very high level of awareness among the local ICT industry regarding ICT accessibility, especially in the tourism and education sectors. However, companies admitted that their employees do not have enough knowledge about ICT accessibility and rely on entities such as FITA for this purpose.
In 2012, FITA developed the Maltese Speech Engine, software that speaks out Maltese text through computers and is also available as an app for smartphones and tablets. FITA is working to improve this software with the support of local ICT company Crimsonwing Malta, which continues to work side by side with the foundation so at to keep this software updated and make it even more effective.