Mabiloft Contributes to the ESIRA Project

On October 7th of this year, the meeting of the “Graziella Anesi” Roundtable took place: an annual session open to the public, coordinated by the Municipality of Trento, with the aim of promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities. I had the pleasure of taking part in the session as a speaker, representing Mabiloft.

But what does Mabiloft have to do with the Municipality of Trento and its projects aimed at the most vulnerable part of the community? The answer is that we had the pleasure of being involved by the Federazione Trentina della Cooperazione in the development of a platform supporting people with disabilities.

After a previous collaboration with the Federazione, in which they appreciated both the technical aspects and the development process, characterized by humanity and empathy, this time they contacted us to build a platform as part of the ESIRA project.

What the ESIRA project is

The ESIRA project is promoted by the European Community to improve conditions in rural areas across Europe, with the participation of 8 countries, including Italy. In particular, Trento is one of the communities involved because of its geography, which entails limited access to essential services and mobility difficulties.

Cooperazione Trentina is one of the project's partner organizations and gathers the voices of representatives of the local community to improve the quality of life of the people most at risk of exclusion, through social economy initiatives and innovative solutions serving the most at-risk groups.

What we built for the ESIRA project

Mabiloft was asked to develop a platform that makes it easier for people with disabilities to access information. For a person with visual or motor impairments, searching for information about the many services offered in the area can be particularly hard, on top of the difficulty of reaching service desks to ask for it in person.

Moreover, for their caregivers too, when present, it can be complex to find their way through the many materials available online: the form found on Google might not be the right one, the information found might not have been updated, and so on.

That is why we developed a platform that integrates artificial intelligence to consult an archive of verified documents. This way, users can ask questions directly and will get answers in simple, concise terms together with the documents that refer to the subject of their request.

For example, users can ask how to apply for disability status, and the AI chat will suggest:

• The steps to apply for recognition of civil disability status
• The requirements and documents needed for the application
• The documents that can be consulted on the subject
• The contacts to reach out to for more information

The documents on which the answers are based are managed in a back office that is constantly updated: this ensures a reliable answer, always based on accurate information.

The ultimate goal is to make it easier to find services and opportunities for people with disabilities, with the help of technology. The platform is currently in beta: after the testing phase, it is expected to be rolled out to citizens during 2027.

How the Graziella Anesi Roundtable went

The Roundtable met in the inCooperazione hall and, in the presence of citizens, including some with disabilities and their family members, discussed how to give a concrete response to the need for autonomy of people with disabilities.

During the meeting, two projects were presented: the one we collaborated on and a sports initiative that aims to include people with and without disabilities in the game of soccer in equal measure.

A personal note

It was very moving to speak in front of such a large audience, especially to those who will be the end users of the platform. It is rare to be able to see the outcome of your own work so up close.

This project was close to my heart from the very beginning. Ever since I was a child, I have been in contact with communities that helped people with disabilities, and today I realize that many of the difficulties these families faced could have been solved if only they had been aware of the tools available to them.

Not knowing about possible solutions, and sometimes also being too proud to ask for help, means that even where the responsible organizations do offer an answer, it is not fully taken advantage of.

This project allowed me, in my own small way, to make a contribution: a tool that can concretely change people's lives, helping them anonymously get the answers they need. The result is a platform that can also break down the barriers often created by technical language or by the complexity of using digital products.

It is the direction I hope all Mabiloft products will take, and it is part of our mission: making technology simplify people's lives.