| Reentering the job market is becoming an important issue for functionally-disabled people, due to economic and ethical reasons. Consequently, business has an interest in and obligation to facilitate this reentry of ready and willing workers. However, prior to starting any rehabilitation or redesigning of the work place to accommodate disabled people entering the job market, their capacity for work must first be assessed. Evaluating the potential ability of a disabled person in the work environment is a complex challenge. Conventional vocational assessment tools, too narrowly defined and tailored for specific areas, and too strictly constructed, do not consider the potential compensatory abilities of each individual.;This research aims to implement fast prototyping in a system readily available for application even with a limited initial data set. It allows the system to adapt itself gradually, in order to become a more comprehensive and accurate system, as more and more data are collected. The strength of this system lies in its adaptability, the special feature that assumes ever-changing social and technical advancements, designed to enhance the potential of disabled workers.;The adaptive fuzzy multiple-criteria decision-making method is used to extract expert knowledge using fuzzy rule sets. The adaptability is achieved by dynamically adding or removing fuzzy rules and by modifying rule parameters. The system demonstrates adaptability and shows stability, while attaining a more accurate evaluation as more data are added and fed back into the system. Accuracy and stability are further accentuated when the self-adapting feature of modification and evaluation of rules takes place.;The objective of this research is to develop a system, Adaptive Overall Disability Index Evaluation System (abbreviated as AODIES), to cover most aspects considered important in a productive worker. Nine categories, (1) achievement, (2) aptitude, (3) interests and opinions, (4) job training time, (5) physical demand, (6) temperament, (7) social and economic, (8) work environment, and (9) work samples have contributed to the Overall Disability Index. The disability of visual impairment is the subject that has been used in developing this system. |
