Visually Impaired children and adolescents: bridging the gap with Personalized Prevention Strategies, Tools, Approaches, and Resources

ongoing

The VIPPSTAR project aims to offer the first holistic framework for a life-long enhancement of health, well-being, and autonomy of children and adolescents with Visual Impairment (VI). We will support a personalized prevention of the profound and sometimes irreversible impacts of VI on individual psychological, educational, and social competence. VI can be identifiable shortly after birth, persists throughout the lifetime and is likely to have an impact on all areas of development. VIPPSTAR will include families and young individuals to overcome the burden of VI and achieve a healthy, independent life and full rights to engage critically and safely with future digital technologies for health, including AI systems. Self empowerment and agency will be promoted moving from healthcare support to family, then self-administered serious gaming, personalized eLearning, and assistant-based coaching. The system will be co-designed together with youths to support a healthy physical and mental growth to adulthood. As a key innovation, we will study body image and identity development in youth with VI and consider its impact on digital media use in youth with VI, drawing concepts to develop personalized programs to prevent inadequate nutrition, limited mobility, and addiction to social media. A dedicated surveillance network will be established to collect data in different socio-economic and geographical groups to obtain an evidence-based comparison of the new programs with the national standard of care. All aspects on ethics, data protection, and AI use will be harmonized with the relevant EU regulations and guidelines for trustworthy AI: VIPPSTAR will establish the first regulatory Sandbox for digital health services in children and youths with VI, collaborating with regulators and stakeholders according to the AI.Act principles, also contributing to other EU initiatives.