Independio was inspired by a number of things, including:

• The bloated budget of Pennsylvania’s waiver programs
• The lack of sustainability in continuing to support individuals to reach goals with little to no progress
• The motivation of individuals when a structured program is in place
• The goals of the individuals in Pennsylvania who need support to learn activities of daily living
• The families who are burning out from caring for their loved ones
• The inter-agency communication issues that affect the individuals in making progress with their goals
• The lack of connectedness within teams who work with an individual
• The need for interactive learning tools and better progress reporting for state progress updates

When individuals utilized hardcopies of the Independio prototypes, the progress seen, were the most inspirational reason for Independio to exist (view Use Cases for more details). The founder of Independio, Niki Mayer, found that individuals increased their independence an average 85% when they had a hard copy of the plans for their goals. Prior to the hardcopies of Independio, individuals were making less than 22% increases in independence, leading to longer term needs for skill building and behavioral specialty services. In addition, individuals had a number of positive things to say about how much easier, how much more enjoyable, and how much more motivated they were when having a more structured plan for their skill and behavior goals.

Overall, Independio was inspired as a digital assistive technology to solve the problems community workers face in Pennsylvania (and likely other states and countries), and increase the progress of goal attainment in adults with autism and other intellectual disabilities. Adults with autism and other intellectual disabilities seem to learn better with structure, routine, and opportunities to learn when alone.