The stage two pilot of the Poseidon apps has now begun in the UK. 3 families – two young men and one young woman with Down’s syndrome have begun exploring what opportunities for greater independence the Poseidon framework and app could bring them.

Working with the individuals and their family-carers has been a real a joy and very quickly they have become familiar with a number of the functions of the apps currently developed. Carers are becoming competent in creating routes and the individuals with Down’s syndrome enjoy practising these using the Home Navigation System and then using their phones to direct them when walking the routes for real. Family carers have been reassured by the option of checking the whereabouts of their son or daughter on the Carers web and of seeing statistics of how the person with Down’s syndrome is improving their accuracy at navigating the routes.

This week families have been using the calendar functions to keep track of their busy schedules and setting reminders for themselves.

Over the next couple of weeks families will be moving on to explore the money-handling apps, which will help develop more independence with shopping.