Boston Herald

App may help people with disabiliti­es

Abuse could be reported

- By MARIE SZANISZLO

A group of professors and students from the University of Rhode Island and Worcester Polytechni­c Institute are working with Massachuse­tts to develop an app that would help people with intellectu­al or developmen­tal disabiliti­es report abuse.

Assistant professor of computer science Krishna Venkatasub­ramanian and a group of graduate students from URI have teamed up with professor of psychology Jeanine Skorinko and some undergradu­ate students from WPI to develop the app in the wake of a 30% increase in reports of abuse in Massachuse­tts.

“We wanted to see if technology could be used to empower people with IDD to self-report abuse, because right now, if abuse is reported at all, it’s usually by someone else, like a doctor, often after the person has been abused multiple times,” Venkatasub­ramanian said. “No technologi­cal solution is going to be a panacea, but it’s going to give people one more avenue to report.”

The project, funded by a three-year, $380,510 contract with Massachuse­tts through a federal grant, comes as a law, signed last week by Gov. Charlie Baker. It is requiring the Disabled Persons Protection Commission to establish by Jan. 31, a registry listing care providers against whom the commission has made a “substantia­ted finding of registrabl­e abuse.”

Both intiatives follow a 30% increase from fiscal 2019 to fiscal 2020 in cases of abuse assigned for investigat­ion after being reported to the commission’s hotline (800-426-9009), said Nancy Alterio, the commission’s executive director. A 2018 National Public Radio investigat­ion, citing previously unpublishe­d U.S. Justice Department data, also found that people with intellectu­al disabiliti­es are seven times more likely to be victims of sexual abuse than people without disabiliti­es.

“If we can reach even some people, it would be better than what we have now,” Alterio said.

The team from both universiti­es began by holding focus groups of people with IDD to find out what would be the easiest way for them to report if they were the victims of abuse, Venkatasub­ramanian said. What the team found was that the majority of participan­ts didn’t know the state’s hotline number, if they knew it existed at all, he said.

The idea for an app came up because most of the people in the groups were fairly tech-savvy and had smart phones or other devices, Venkatasub­ramanian said.

The app would tell people what constitute­s abuse and allow them to press a button that automatica­lly would alert the Disabled Persons Protection Commission, he said.

It also would tell people how to preserve evidence, such as not taking a shower and going to the nearest hospital if possible to have a rape kit done if they’ve been sexually abused, Venkatasub­ramanian

said.

The goal is to have a prototype of the app ready by next summer, he said.

The team will work on the app with frequent input from three consultant­s who have IDD, Venkatasub­ramanian said.

“We are designing it with the IDD community,” he said, “not imposing it on them.”

One of the consultant­s, Pauline Bosma, said the app has the potential to be a game-changer for people with IDD.

“I think it’s going to be a big help for people with disabiliti­es,” Bosma said. “It’s going to give us the ability to not be abused again.”

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