Applications: ENABLEbase

A knowledge-based decision support system to find appropriate services for people with disabilities.

The Information Problem

For Albertans with disabilities, the search for appropriate disability-related information is too often an exercise in frustration and disappointment.

Needs for disability-related information are many and varied, including: where to find support groups for individuals and families; where to find accessible housing; where and how to modify a vehicle; early intervention programs for children; availability of respite care; and grant programs of all kinds. This information is obtainable if the individual perseveres and manages to ask the right people the right questions. However, many do not even know where to start.

The proliferation of services and programs for people with disabilities has made it difficult to access appropriate information. Attempts to access this information through repeated verbal contact with multiple sources often results in incomplete and inaccurate information, depending on the knowledge of the contact people.

Assessment of Needs

In 1989, the Premier's Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities consulted Albertans with disabilities, their families, and service providers. Poor access to information was one of the most frequently-voiced complaints. Consequently, when its Action Plan was released in 1990, the Council recommended the establishment of a province-wide information system that would meet this demand for information. To this end they established the Alberta Information Network (AIN) with a mission to provide all Albertans with easy, immediate access to information on all aspects of disability.

A New Approach

AIN proposed development of an intelligent system called ENABLEbase to address this mission. Acquire^® and its SDK were the tools of choice because of the Acquire^® knowledge acquisition capabilities and its straightforward approach to building knowledge bases. The Acquire^®SDK, an integral component of ENABLEbase, is a powerful library that provides any software application with direct access to all the information inherent in the knowledge base.

The ENABLEbase^™ Application

The purpose of ENABLEbase was to provide disabled people with access to general and specific information about services available to them from the various levels of government, private companies and community organizations within Alberta. ENABLEbase incorporates a knowledge-based system that assists one in making decisions about which programs and services are appropriate.

The knowledge base matches an individual's circumstances with the eligibility criteria of all of the programs and services available to disabled people and selects only those services that are appropriate. People seeking programs and services can then focus their efforts on investigating those agencies that offer services to meet their needs, eliminating unnecessary contacts with agencies whose services do not. Once the knowledge base selects the appropriate services the ENABLEbase application collects the relevant information (application procedure, contact name & numbers, etc.) from the database and prepares a report for viewing or printing.

Conclusion

The Acquire^® products have allowed the project team to build a powerful and flexible application that meets the diverse information needs of users in one comprehensive application. Most importantly for the Alberta Information Network Project was the prompt and courteous service received from the Acquired Intelligence Inc. support team.

The project team has successfully applied artificial intelligence technology to the selection of appropriate services and is currently beta testing ENABLEbase. A production release is scheduled for the new year.

Future plans include a knowledge base to assist in selecting the appropriate database (e.g., disabilities, seniors, aboriginal peoples, etc.) and to assist program planners in identifying gaps and duplications in services offered collectively by all agencies and levels of governments to make the entire program delivery system more efficient and effective.