Using technology to promote active participation by older people

1. Using technology to promote active participation by older people Helen Petrie Human Computer Interaction Research Group University of York

2. The context The last 70 years have seen enormous technological advances Largely due to WWII, Cold War and the space race Technology has changed from something people were frightened of to an absolute necessity

3. The solution … and the problem Technology offers many extraordinary opportunities for older people But also creates many barriers Although I’m a technology enthusiast, today I am going to talk about some of the problems as well as some of the successes I will also concentrate on interactive technologies, as that’s what I know about

4. Mainstream vs Assistive Technology I want to talk about mainstream technologies (those created for “everyone”) then assistive technologies (those created to create greater independence for disabled or older people

5. A big problem with mainstream technologies • New technologies are still designed by young (white male) people for young (white male) people • Google Glass - another example • Could be fantastic for older people, but already designing with inbuilt inaccessibility • With the ageing population we have an opportunity to put pressure on the big tech companies to change this

6. Mainstream technology: Many services in the world are moving from person-based to self service terminals: Banking, tickets, bag check at airport, shopping Use is moving from voluntary to mandatory

7. Voluntary -> mandatory Should be putting pressure on self service providers to make systems easy to use – not a great deal of evidence for that Complex issues of attitudes of older users resistant to change not necessarily “technophobic”

8. Mainstream technologies Always a long lag between initial launch and actual accessibility ATMS: 1993 – EU SATURN demonstrated an accessible ATM at RNIB 2012 – talking ATMs “launched” by Barclays (in spite of a talking Hello Kitty toy ATM)

9. Mainstream technologies But mainstream technologies also provide an enormous opportunity for helping older people deal with life: • Skype to stay in touch with relatives (even if they are on another continent) • eReaders that enlarge text (a great relief to me) • Using the internet to research healthcare and medical information

10. Assistive technologies The other half of the technology/digital revolution puts many technologies at the disposal of developers to exploit specifically to create new systems to support older and disabled people • The GPS system of satellites has lead to personal navigation systems to help people find their way and locate them if they get lost • Sensor technologies are revolutionizing home monitoring systems

11. Assistive technologies However, I do have words of caution here I see far, far too many developments that • address a need that people do not have (the technologists imagine older people have) • Are not designed to be suitably easy for people to use • Are not acceptable to users

12. Assistive technologies There is a great need for deeper interdisciplinary work to avoid such problems Need technologists (the geeks), human factors people (me!), but also gerontology experts (you guys!) working much more closely together It isn’t easy to learn each others languages and methodologies Perhaps invite technology people to some joint conferences/sessions

13. There are also more complex problems It is easy to blame the technology people for not understanding the needs of older people But it’s always not that simple I want to end with a case study that I have worked on about making the Web more usable for older people

14. Web Accessibility • People have been arguing for accessibility of the web for disabled and older people since its inception • Tim Berners-Lee allegedly said “The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of ability is an essential aspect” • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines have been around since 1999, version 2 since 2008

15. Web accessibility • At least 10 different sets of guidelines for how to make the Web accessible for older people • Only one of these sets has any basis in research with older people • Often the guidelines tell you to do contradictory things

16. Web Accessibility • But is the web accessible to older people? • Older people still struggle to use the Web • We are currently analysing approx. 110 papers which have conducted surveys of web accessibility since 2000 to investigate the trends • From our own data from 1999– 2013, 19% -> 13% of websites meet basic accessibility levels

17. Basic web accessibility 1999 – 2013

18. Web Accessibility: the developer perspective • Little research on WHY this is the case • Various surveys have been conducted with web developers to understand the problem – probably huge demand effects in the answers • We have now approached this differently, conducting a “contextual inquiry” study with 14 web developers, looking in detail at how they work and how accessibility information could be incorporated into their workflow

19. Web Accessibility: the developer perspective • Two key issues emerged: • Too much domain specific knowledge and language • Organization of information in documents such as WCAG do not match developers mental models or workflows • We are asking too much of web developers, they cannot all be experts in web accessibility • If we want an accessible web we must find ways of making it easier for web developers • Is there an imbalance of effort: AT vs support for developers?

20. Web Accessibility: support for developers We have developed the WebAIR resource (Web Accessibility information Resource) Design of the resource: • Organized by topics that developers are thinking/working on – forms, tables, multmedia … • poses key questions to the developer e.g. “are the labels explicitly associated with the fields [in the form]?” • Each question has a “more information” link to explanation of why this is needed/important – written in “developer speak” • Each “more information” has code examples, links to WCAG

21. Web accessibility: support for developers • Evaluation with 26 web developers, all working professionally (6 in large firms, 15 in SMEs, 5 freelance) • Were asked to take a website they were currently working on, work on the accessibility (looking for issues, fixing them ..) • Tried both WebAIR and WCAG, presented in very similar style • Order counterbalanced • Then rated each, interviewed

22. Web accessibility: support for developers

23. Web accessibility: support for developers • Good response • Lots of comments for improvements • We are now considering how to disseminate this resource • How to tie it into the workflow of developers most effectively

24. The moral of the story We need to think about all the stakeholders in the “value chain” The organization commissioning the website -> the designers -> the developers -> the disabled/older web users

25. Conclusions • We need technology people who understand the needs of older people much more deeply • We need to articulate more clearly the gaps and problems in people lives where technology might help (technology pull rather than technology push) • Need more involvement of users in research • But I believe your community has an important role to play, as you have deep expertise in the issues associated with aging

26. Thank you for your attention!