The firm Semanticbots, linked to Espaitec, the Science and Technology Park of the Universitat Jaume I, has created an inclusive and accessible chatbot with all the information about coronavirus. This chatbot, known as SayOBO, is available in Spanish and Valencian, and allows people with visual impairment and the elderly to consult all the digital information about Covid-19 on many platforms.
This initiative of creating an inclusive chatbot on Covid-19 was taken after the Agency to Fight Against Digital Divide, which belongs to the Regional Ministry of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society of the Generalitat Valenciana, knew the problems of some groups being able to access digital information about today’s exceptional situation, which was created for today’s health crisis.
Semanticbots has created an inclusive chatbot about Covid-19 to ensure that digital information about the pandemic will easily reach society as a whole, including people with visual impairment and the elderly. SayOBO has started being included on the official websites of several disabled associations in the Valencian Community, such as CERMI and COCEMFE. This inclusive system can be installed free of charge on any website of organisations, associations and companies to improve accessibility and to facilitate digital information to all users.
SayOBO: a virtual assistant for society as a whole
The chatbot with information about Covid-19 is also accessible on many platforms and devices from the websites where it is installed. It helps to assist all users at the same time in both Spanish and Valencian by helping and complementing usual official communication channels. Its main objective is to ensure digital inclusion and all society accessing digital information, especially when being informed is so vital with today’s health crisis.
It is stressed that this virtual assistant includes more than 400 inquiries about symptoms, hygiene measures, occupational measures and social rights, as well as other measures deriving from the alarm situation caused by coronavirus. This chatbot’s answers and knowledge base come from official regional, national and international sources, and from other organisations like the World Health Organization (WHO), scientific articles and confirmed digital information.
SemanticBots started developing SayOBO last year as it was aware of the obstacles that people with visual impairment face with digital accessibility. SayOBO is an inclusive artificial intelligence system made with own technology that facilitates access to digital information and improves the rendering of services to digital users by contributing major benefits for our society, even in the present-day situation.
We end by mentioning that Semanticbots designs and develops conversational platforms based on chatbots with artificial intelligence, and is formed by researchers from the TKBG (Temporal Knowledge Bases Groups) of the Universitat Jaume I, who are experts in artificial intelligence and Big Data.
