Accessibility and Usability of Information Technology by the Elderly

Abstract

The population of elderly people and the use of computers and the Internet are both growing at extraordinary rates in the United States. The potential exists for elderly people to improve their own lives as well as the lives of others by making more use of this technology. However, the elderly are currently among the lowest users of computers and the Internet. The common belief that older people fear or are indifferent towards technology does not fully explain this low usage. Rather, the elderly are subject to the same income and education divisions that impede accessibility to the population as a whole, as well as certain physical, cognitive, and mental impairments that come with age and can impede usability. Thus, the keys to increasing the numbers of elderly people making effective use of technology are addressing both universal accessibility and universal usability. These solutions are applicable to many other people as well, making their implementation broadly useful and cost-effective.

Introduction

American society is currently experiencing revolutionary growth in two important areas. First, the population of older people is increasing at an extraordinary rate. People 45 and older will soon make up more than half the adult population [4], and people 85 and older are the fastest growing age group [3]. Elderly people are living longer, and are often living alone, geographically separated from family care-givers. Second, the use of computers in everyday life, particularly the Internet, is also growing at astonishing rates. The percent of posted web sites increased approximately 6,500-fold between 1993 and 1996 and the percent of the U.S. population using the Internet increased approximately 6-fold between 1995 and 1999 [2]. As a result of these two revolutions, there is a huge potential for harnessing the power of the Internet to benefit people of all ages. Elderly people can socialize, remain independent through easy access to information, goods, and services, and take advantage of lifelong learning opportunities through online courses [3,5,9,11,15]. The rest of the population can benefit from easy access to the wealth of experience, expertise, and creativity that older people have to offer.

However, there are currently two obstacles retarding the synergy between these two revolutions. First, the bulk of the lifespan of the current elderly population has been spent when personal computing technology did not exist. While my grandfather builds web pages as a hobby and emails regularly with friends and family, my grandmother is afraid to use a microwave, never mind a computer. Fortunately, the next generation of elders will be more familiar with computing technology, and the "technophobia" of the current generation appears to be dissipating. Second, and more seriously, the elderly face a number of technology accessibility impediments related to income and education, and technology usability impediments related to physical, mental, and cognitive impairments. Some effective strategies exist for addressing these accessibility and usability needs, but their universal implementation is required before these two revolutions can truly benefit each other.

Background and Analysis

At a first glance, many of the statistics describing computer and Internet activity among older people are discouraging. In 1998, people 55 and older trailed all other age groups for both computer ownership and Internet access [8]. Seniors are the least at ease with using the Internet and in considering themselves experienced or skilled Internet users [2]. However, statistics show that once elders become avid users, their online skills and activities do not differ much from other age groups. Also, older users are experiencing some of the highest rates of increase in computer ownership and Internet usage [2]. A 1995 study conducted by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) showed that age is not a major predictor of computer ownership. Education and higher income were the most likely predictors across all adult age groups [19]. Thus, the idea that age-related "technophobia" or lack of interest are the main obstacles to elderly computer and Internet usage seem to be disappearing. In fact, many argue that one of the main reasons that elderly users have been underrepresented in computing is that until recently, hardware and software design, particularly interfaces, have simply not been designed to accommodate them [1,15,19].

Exactly what needs accommodating, however, remains a bit elusive. A large body of research exists on the psychology of aging with respect to the impairment of certain cognitive, perceptual, and motor abilities with age. However, these impairments vary a lot among elderly people, and descriptions of average behavior found in such research become less accurate as the age of group being studied increases [4]. Some studies comparing elderly and younger users with computing tasks show no differences in performance [7,10], while others show significant differences [18]. What is known is that certain abilities related to vision, hearing, psychomotor skills, attention span, and memory can degrade with age. Older people show a reduction in the width of their visual field, their ability to see fine details, and their ability to process visual information. Hearing and the ability to hear higher pitched sounds declines with age, as do response times for certain complex motor tasks and the ability to pay attention to particular details in the presence of distracting information. Short-term memory does not decline much with age, but working memory does show impairment [4].

There is little research on specific user-interface design techniques to address the impairments that come with age. However, recommendations and guidelines are starting to emerge (see Recommendations and Guidelines below). In addition, the current push for universal access to computers and the Internet by the U.S. government and for universal usability by many human-computer interaction professionals will provide many benefits to the elderly. A 1999 U.S. Dept. of Commerce study shows that while access to computers and the Internet is growing for all demographic groups, "the digital divide between the information rich (such as Whites, Asians/Pacific Islanders, those with higher incomes, those more educated, and dual-parent households) and the information poor (such as those who are younger, those with lower incomes and education levels, certain minorities, and those in rural areas or central cities)" is also growing [8]. Thus, as the AARP study indicated, income and education are far more important in determining universal access than age. Any steps taken to address these divides, such as those described in the paper on low income web usage included on this website, will allow access for more elderly people.

Universal access to new technology is one important step, but even if this goal is achieved, a more difficult challenge is making this technology usable by everyone, including the elderly. Shneiderman [14] promotes three steps for attaining universal usability: providing for technology variety, user diversity, and gaps in knowledge. These steps are key for the elderly. Elderly users on fixed incomes require support for older hardware and software (see paper on high and low bandwidth connections included on this website). Their predisposition to certain physical and cognitive impairments necessitates care in the design of interfaces to meet more diverse needs. Finally, having not been exposed to computers in school or on the job, the elderly are likely to be novice users who require more guidance and training when using unfamiliar hardware and software (see paper on expert and novice users included on this website). While such steps may appear to require expensive, separate solutions, Kobsa and Stephanidis [6] note that single, generic systems that are adaptable and adaptive to various user needs are realistic and more economically viable (see paper on adaptive and adaptable software systems included on this website).

Guidelines and Recommendations

There are a number of steps that can be taken by a variety of groups to achieve universal accessibility of computers and the Internet by the elderly, and indeed all people. In their Digital Divide study, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce recommends that public and private institutions implement policies to make access more affordable, create community access centers, and design training programs for community leaders [8]. The International Scientific Forum "Toward an Information Society for All" has published a research agenda to address the challenges of universal accessibility and usability [17]. They recommend that public and private groups create "environments of use" to allow groups of users to collaborate and communicate in more meaningful ways. Existing web sites such as SeniorNet [13] are the first step toward achieving this goal for the elderly by helping them feel comfortable online. Shneiderman's recommendations for supporting technology diversity and gaps in user knowledge need to be addressed by the computer industry, and legislated if necessary. Hardware and software designers should be sensitive to the need for backward compatibility with older versions. Online services need to design for lower bandwidth connections. Software designers should consider adaptable interfaces with "training wheels" and extensive online help for novice users [15].

While universal accessibility needs to be addressed by a number of groups, the user-interface design community is the key group needed to achieve universal usability. User-interface designers face one of the most challenging tasks because of the need to support a broad range of user diversity. Accommodations need to be made for people with different physical and cognitive disabilities, ages, skills, cultures, etc. Fortunately, a number of guidelines are beginning to emerge, and often the same guidelines apply to many different demographics. For the elderly, the most important guidelines relate to designs that accommodate impairments in vision, hearing, motor skills, and working memory. A number of these guidelines, described below, have clear benefits for a wide population of users.

The World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative provides a set of guidelines for web page designers to accommodate a variety of disabilities and impairments [20]. The following guidelines are particularly pertinent to the elderly:

• Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content
• Don't rely on color alone (provide redundant cues)
• Provide context and orientation information
• Provide clear navigation mechanisms
• Ensure that documents are clear and simple

Microsoft distributes a freely available white paper on their "Seniors and Technology" web page. This document describes a number of web page design guidelines specifically geared toward older adults to address impairments in vision and motor skills, as well as low bandwidth connections and novice users [16]. Layout, style, color, contrast, and font choices are all discussed. The recommendations include:

• Use large areas of white space and small blocks of text
• Provide larger graphics and click targets
• Use contrasting foreground and background colors
• Minimize blinking images and animation
• Use at least 12-point size fonts and avoid using too many different fonts

Hawthorn [4] provides an even more extensive set of recommendations for addressing impairments in vision, speech and hearing, psychomotor skills, attention span, and memory when designing any kind of computer interface for the elderly. In addition to many of the recommendations already mentioned, he emphasizes:

• Use layout simplicity, clarity, and consistency
• Use lower frequency tones for sounds
• Design speech recognition software to cope with slower speech
• Allow double-click speeds to be slower
• Avoid delays and distractions to minimize short term memory loss
• Use only simple, relevant graphics
• Prefer short text or lists to paragraphs of text

Conclusion

As technology is becoming more prevalent and indeed more necessary in everyday life, the government has recognized the need to improve accessibility to computers and the Internet. The elderly are subject to the same education and income impediments to this technology as the rest of the population. Public, private, and industry-specific initiatives to address these barriers are beginning to emerge, and are necessary to achieve universal accessibility. In addition to accessibility, the usability of this technology by people with different disabilities, cultures, languages, and personalities is also an important goal. The elderly are subject to degradations in certain cognitive, perceptual, and motor skills that can make using technology difficult. More research is needed to fully understand the effects of these impairments on various types of hardware and software. However, user-interface designers can begin to address many of these impairments with simple design guidelines that benefit other demographic groups as well. Supporting universal usability in this way will ensure that the elderly can take advantage of all the opportunities afforded by technology, and that the rest of the population can use technology to take advantage of all the skills, knowledge, and creativity that the rapidly increasing population of elderly people have to offer.

References