EAMHID 2025: 15th European Congress of Mental Health in intellectual Disability

From 18 to 20 September 2025, the 15th European Congress of Mental Health in Intellectual Disability took place in Ghent, Belgium. The EAMHID Congress is held every two years and is aimed at academics, professionals, relatives, and people with disabilities who are interested in mental health issues in people with intellectual disabilities (ID).

As part of a solicited symposium entitled Assistive technologies for people with intellectual disabilities, Linda Münch and Kathrin Förster gave presentations on the CompanionApp.

The CompanionApp is a technical prototype of an app-based route training tool designed to support people with spatial orientation difficulties in finding their way. In a co-creation process, staff from Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences in Wolfenbüttel, from the Faculties of Computer Science and Social Work, are developing the CompanionApp together with an expert group of people with ID within the project Cultural Participation in Museums. The project is being carried out within the framework of the Leibniz ScienceCampus – Postdigital Participation.

In her presentation CompanionApp for People with Spatial Orientation Disorders – Co-Creating the App Design, Linda Münch reported on the participatory design of the CompanionApp together with the expert group of people with ID. This was followed by Kathrin Förster’s presentation Augmented reality-based navigation via “CompanionApp” – a usability study, in which she presented the current status of the CompanionApp as a technical prototype and first results from a pilot study.