Identification Card of the Person with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Minas Gerais (Ciptea)

Implemented in 2021, the Identification Card of the Person with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Carteira de Identificação da Pessoa com Transtorno do Espectro Autista (CIPTEA), is a digital and/or physical document, which aims to facilitate and enable people with autism to receive comprehensive care and priority care to public and private services. The Card is a fundamental instrument to guarantee rights, since it avoids constraints due to the different characteristics and behaviors that are not conventionally known.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 1 in 160 children in the world have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In Minas Gerais (MG), data from the 2021 School Census show that there are 26,935 students with ASD enrolled in the Education Network throughout the state. However, data in Brazil is still too limited to measure the number of people with the disorder, especially since many adults have not been diagnosed. Thus, the lack of qualified data on the profile of people with autism is one of the major problems faced in planning public policies aimed at this audience. Other challenges are the lack of accessibility and discriminatory behaviour committed against people with ASD, who, for all legal purposes, are considered people with disabilities (PWD). In view of the scenario described, Federal Law No. 13,977/2020 was sanctioned, which creates the Identification Card for People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (CIPTEA) and delegates to the executing bodies of the National Policy for the Protection of the Rights of People with ASD in the States, the Federal District and the Municipalities the competence to issue it.

The sanction of the law imposed on the State of MG, through the delegation of competence, the legal obligation to implement CIPTEA. This, therefore, generated enormous social pressure on the state government to comply with the law. At the state level, Sedese was legally responsible for issuing the CIPTEA. However, in order to actually implement the document, it was necessary to institutionalise and standardise a single model for the entire state territory. The implementation of CIPTEA in MG aimed at the following points: a) Ensure and protect the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms of people with autism; b) Eliminate discrimination based on disability and increase the quality of life and well-being of citizens with ASD; c) Officialize the issuance of CIPTEA throughout the state territory in a standardised, secure manner and in compliance with the General Data Protection Law; d) Ensure access to the issuance of CIPTEA for all regions of the State; e) Create a database and information on people with autism in MG.

The tool uses the Gov.br signature to issue the Card and the document, in turn, has a QR Code that indicates its validity, avoiding fraud and misuse of the service. In addition, this tool allows the creation of a database and its display on dashboards for public policy managers. In this way, not only is the problem of lack of qualified data on autistic people minimised, but also the access of this public to their rights is improved.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

The development of the CIPTEA request and issuance process in Minas Gerais is innovative because the service was co-created together with its target audience, in a technological tool that enabled the service to be carried out virtually and in person. The methodology used in the project, developed by Lab.mg, was based on Design Thinking, which places the user of the services at the centre of the discussion and which values the joint construction of solutions. The use of the process automation tool, ProMGBPMS, made it possible to create its own innovative system for implementing the service and to standardise the process, meeting the needs and specificities of the different realities of the municipalities.

What is the current status of your innovation?

The development of the system was done using the agile methodology, considering small deliveries. In this way, the service was made available and incremental innovations are constantly made in the process in order to improve it.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

Sedese held a dialogue with Civil Society Organisations related to the agenda and with people with ASD to perceive the pains and desires of this public, in order to build a solution for issuing the document focused on the end user. It also held meetings with other states and municipalities that already offered a similar document issuing service for people with autism. And for the development of the document there was a partnership between Sedese, Seplag and Prodemge.

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

The direct beneficiaries of CIPTEA are people with autism and their families or legal guardians and the implementation of CIPTEA in MG guarantees people with autism, and their legal guardians, access to a nationally recognised official identification document, standardised at state level and issued with security and protection. Thus, it is expected that the carrying of the document by people with autism will expand the autonomy and freedom of its users.

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

The development of a statewide electronic system for requesting and issuing CIPTEA 100% digitally and the qualification of 32 Integrated Service Units (Uai) to issue the document in person, allowed people with autism anywhere in Minas Gerais to have access to the document. In 6 months, 5,517 requests for cards were registered, of which 1,926 were online and 3,136 in person. In the meantime, 3,954 documents have already been issued, 830 online and 3,124 in person. In terms of results, this means that, with only 6 months of operation of the service, Minas Gerais already has 343 municipalities with at least one citizen with CIPTEA, representing approximately 40% of all municipalities in the State. Finally, the electronic system responsible for the management of CIPTEA promotes the collection of various data from applicants and their requests, consolidating itself as a database and information of Minas Gerais citizens with autism.

Challenges and Failures

The following uncertainties faced by the project stand out: a) the creation of the legal basis that established CIPTEA in MG, given that the regulations to be created needed to standardise procedures for issuing the document; b) the risk that the target audience would not issue CIPTEA after the document was implemented in the state, leaving the entire structure developed to offer the service idle. In order to mitigate the impact of the aforementioned risks, during the design of the project, we sought to capture the perception, wishes and desires of the end users of CIPTEA, so that the document would in fact meet the demand of people with autism.

Conditions for Success

It is possible to highlight two main factors that contributed to the success of the initiative. The first refers to the project created for the execution of the service, that is, a project was structured and planned with the involvement of different areas so that each one contributed in one aspect in order for the CIPTEA Issue in Minas to reach the largest possible audience in an efficient way. The area responsible for the initiative involved Lab.mg to define the flow based on interviews with autistic people, workshops with representatives of the target audience, experiences from other states and municipalities and studies of legislation.

Based on this, the participation of the Central Superintendence of Electronic Governance and Services (SUBGOVES) was triggered to analyse the best way to execute the service and, thus, the possibility of face-to-face and digital request was built, in addition to defining mechanisms for validating the cards. The second essential factor for success was the engagement of the target audience, since they embraced the cause and participated in the process.

Replication

New services were inserted within the ProMGBPMS tool in order to enable digital and/or face-to-face requests for citizens. It was possible to replicate in these new flows several functionalities built throughout the creation of CIPTEA, such as the dashboard and the electronic signature via Gov.br.

Lessons Learned

Involvement of the end user and CSOs in the elaboration of the service flow and in the modelling of the document was essential for the success of the policy.
Raising the expectations and pains of those involved made it possible for the entire process of requesting and issuing CIPTEA to be easily accessible and understandable to citizens, thus generating greater reach
Use of the agile methodology, which allows small deliveries, adaptations and improvements throughout the project
Support from senior management that allows the project to progress more quickly and greater involvement of the teams