On 1 January 2023, the project “Kompetenzerwerb, Inklusion, und Re-Integration durch assistierte Arbeit – KomIn2Assist” (Competence acquisition, inclusion, and re-integration through assisted work – KomIn2Assist) was launched to promote the participation of people with impairments, especially in the world of work.

Kickoff for the new KomIn2Assist project: On 12 February 2023, the five project partners from science, business and participation met for the kickoff in Gärtringen at the project coordinator FEMOS gGmbH.

Project follows “Design for All” idea

The aim of KomIn2Assist is to develop an assistive system that supports people with impairments at work. Text-based interactions provide context-aware knowledge and coaching, thus strengthening competence, autonomy and self-confidence.

Instead of permanent monitoring, which can be understood as paternalism, competence, autonomy and self-confidence of the users are strengthened through situation-specific instructions. At the same time, gamification increases the motivation for explorative learning and work. This promotes the reintegration of people with disabilities into the primary labour market, which benefits both the individual and the economy.

Link to IncluMOVE project

In this project, the ACI continues research and development in the field of assistive systems and inclusion, especially through the use of empathic agents and gamification. In this way, the project builds on experiences from the IncluMOVE project.

Cooperation between science, business and participation

In addition to the University of Applied Sciences Offenburg with its research institute Affective & Cognitive Institute (ACI), the two inclusion companies FEMOS gGmbH and Intra-Mechanik gGmbH, Lebenswerkstatt e.V. as a workshop for people with disabilities and Optimum datamanagement solutions GmbH as a specialist for intelligent image processing are involved in the project.

The project is funded for the period from 01.01.2023 to 31.12.2025 in the funding measure “Zukunft der Wertschöpfung – Forschung zur Produktion, Dienstleistung und Arbeit” (Future of Value Creation – Research on Production, Services and Work) in the BMBF’s programme “Innovative Working Environments in SMEs”.