Web Accessibility and Older People - not as straighforward as you think?

Older people and web accessibility – not as straightforward as you think? David Sloan @sloandr 21 st September 2011 a11yLDN, City University, London

(Good to be in the warm south!) http://www.flickr.com/photos/kreidphotography/4258012264

Overview:
Web accessibility and older people
Existing best practice
Current and future research directions

Older Web Users and Accessibility: it’s important!
Population increase in UK – projections for mid 2008-2033
Source: Office of National Statistics

Two main UK policy challenges:
Encouraging older people to become web users ( lots of attention so far – Race Online etc )
Supporting older web users in sustaining access, minimising disengagement ( less attention )

Age-related accessibility issues
Sensory: Vision, Hearing
Motor: Dexterity
Cognitive
Fluid intelligence (relating to processing and reasoning, aptitude for learning, working memory, visual attention)

Understanding age-related accessibility issues
Chronological age is not a reliable indicator of capability or performance. Also consider:
Ability
Aptitude
Attitude
Chisnell and Redish (2004) Designing Web sites for Older Adults: Expert review of Usability for Older adults at 50 web sites.

Issues highly individual , in terms of:
The accessibility issue(s) a person may have
The way in which these issues were acquired
The rate that these issues change in severity
The impact of these issues individually and in combination

Some capabilities are less prone to decline over time:
Crystallised intelligence – knowledge acquired through learning and life experience
May help explain older people’s relatively high success levels in ill-defined search tasks

Research and development
Lots of HCI and cognitive science research on ageing and technology use
Output from organisations supporting older people – e.g. US National Institute on Aging
Some commercial interest in sharing findings (Nielsen-Norman Group, WebCredible)

Output? Lots of guidelines!
Some of them extremely prescriptive; some at odds with modern web development
Some may introduce new issues
Sign of a gulf between ageing/technology research and the people designing the technology?

WAI-AGE: trying to bridge the gap

Social nature of accessibility and ageing

Social acceptability of accessibility solutions
Some are mainstream, and accepted…some are not

Ways forward: for authors and developers
Follow WCAG; look at age-related guidelines
Focus on reducing cognitive load – usability is key
Be sensitive to additional needs of older people – involve older people throughout user experience design
Be sensitive to perceptions and awareness of “accessibility”

Ways forward: Supporting changing access needs
Simplifying the browsing experience
HTML 5 Form elements; AJAX for usability
Desktop and mobile apps – remove the browser UI!
Accommodating age-related capability change
Capability detection and gradual accessibility adaptation – e.g. SUS-IT project http://sus-it.lboro.ac.uk
Better involvement of accessibility in part of older people browsing skills acquisition

Ways forward: Involving older people more effectively in web design
Taking advantage of the crystallised knowledge of older web users
Involving older people in participatory design
User interface paradigms and metaphors that are recognisable and appropriate
Understanding more about how older people acquire and apply skills to use the Web
Ethnography of older people as Web learners and users
Cognitive modelling of specific behaviours

Summary
Older web users are not a homogeneous group
Older web users may have accessibility needs – but may not know it or have the appropriate technology
Focus on reducing cognitive demand on browsing
This problem won’t go away unless we all work to evangelise and practice UCD with older people (including our future selves)

Acknowledgments
Paula Forbes (photos)
Sergio Sayago (insight from ethnography with older web users)

THANKYOU!
email: [email_address]
twitter: @sloandr
blogs: www.58sound.com --- blog.dundee.ac.uk/eaccessibility
work: www.dmag.org.uk --- www.computing.dundee.ac.uk

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Web Accessibility and Older People - not as straighforward as you think?

by David Sloan on Sep 22, 2011

Accessibility

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Web Accessibility and Older People - not as straighforward as you think? — Presentation Transcript