“PEI-ICF PETRA”: a smart web platform to foster cooperation in drafting the individualized Education Plan (IEP) for students with disability

The implementation of the framework offered by the international classification of functioning disability and health (ICF) is recognized as a necessary step in the process of school inclusion for pupils with disabilities. This step may be greatly eased by informatics tools that guide users without requiring extensive familiarity with the ICF. Here we describe the development and testing of PETRA, a specific digital tool that supports the personalization of the educational path for students with certified disabilities in Italy. The tool foresees the active participation of the family and the student himself in his own training path and guides the user through sequential steps: observation, planning, realization, validation, The usability and efficiency of the tool was tested in a representative set of schools in the Trento province. Using this tool, each student is considered in his uniqueness and the educational and didactic interventions are calibrated to its specificities (including the oftenunrecognized potentialities,) and the context in which it lives. The tool was well received, showed its efficiency in each of the steps promising to offer substantial support in improving school inclusion and empowerment of students with disabilities.