Gasteiger-Klicpera Barbara

As part of the project „DigIDe”, we address the stress load of professionals caring for people with intellectual disabilities. In addition, the project is designing a digital tool for early identification of dementia in people with intellectual disabilities. The aim of the project is to minimize stressful situations for caregivers due to dementia symptoms in people with intellectual disabilities and to reveal possibilities for support and assistance. We develop and test this tool in a participatory process together with employees from social services for people with disabilities. 

Keywords: intellectual disability and dementia, early identification, workload, digital tool

Barbara Gasteiger-Klicpera studied psychology and received her doctorate (with distinction) from the University of Vienna. Supported by a Charlotte-Bühler-Habilitation scholarship (FWF), she habilitated in 2002 for psychology on the topic of "Aggression and Classroom Climate - Development and Influencing Factors". She is also a trained clinical and health psychologist and psychotherapist. After professorships at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich and at the University of Education in Weingarten, she took over the professorship and established the research group of Inclusive Education and Special Educational Psychology at the University of Graz in 2010. From 2011 to 2019, she was the Dean of the Faculty of Environmental, Regional and Educational Sciences. Since 2020, together with the Universities of Teacher Education, she is establishing the Research Centre for Inclusive Education.

Her research is concerned with the promotion of inclusion at all ages. Her research focuses in particular on instructional development in heterogeneous classes, diagnostics and intervention for students with reading and spelling difficulties, interventions for students with social and emotional difficulties, intervention research and critical health literacy in students. In recent years, she has increasingly focused on the possibilities of digital technologies to support inclusion and participation.