Thomas, a 15 year old boy with Down syndrome, knew that some of his friends were taking the subway when going to the cinema. He wanted to do so himself. As he was always taking taxi to school, in the centre of Oslo, and his mother or father were driving him elsewhere, he had to learn how to buy a subway ticket. In Oslo, the only option to buy a ticket is using a ticket automat at the station.
To do this he was helped by a calendar appointment and a video instruction in the POSEIDON app, made by his mother. Once, when Thomas had agreed with his friend Lucas to go to the cinema in afternoon, his mother made an appointment for this in the POSEIDON calendar that Thomas was using on his smart phone. She made the appointment on the POSEIDON website and inserted a video instruction she had made showing how to buy a single ticket at the subway station.
Initially Thomas was studying the video together with his mother at home. He was encouraged to stop the video a few times, and he and his mother talked about what to do. Later the same day, half an hour before he was supposed to go to the cinema, a reminder for the appointment popped up in his calendar. Thomas could see an image showing NOK 16 in coins and the voice of his mother said: «Remember coins for the trip. You need 16 kroner.»
Thomas found the coins in a small drawer his mother had prepared with many coins. Then he and his mother went to the subway station together. Thomas immediately recognized the ticket automat and aimed for it. At first, he was not certain which button to push. Then he took up his mobile phone, found the appointment with the video and started the video. Then he realized what to do and easily pressed the same buttons as in the movie.
He actually only stopped the video when he was supposed to insert coins. His mother had told him to do so to check if the amount to be paid was the same as in the video. As this was OK, he inserted coins into the correct slice and picked up the ticket as he had seen where the slice for coins and the broader slice for tickets were, in the video at home. Then he started the video again and verified that he wanted to use the ticket in a verification automat next to the ticket automat. This was also described in the video.
When he entered the subway with the ticket in his hand, he seemed very lucky that he had been able to buy a ticket completely on his own! His mother thought this was a very good start for Thomas to learn to travel on his own with public transport, even if she would follow Thomas this first time on the subway and from the subway station to the cinema. The next time going to the cinema, his mother would also start to teach Thomas how to be supported by the navigation part of the POSEIDON app on the journey. She knew that it is important not to introduce a person with Down syndrome for too many new tasks at the same time.