Web Accessibility:
The Next Generation
Vicki Hanson

Following WAI-AGE

Pose the Question
• When today’s young adults become ‘older
adults’ will they exhibit difficulties with
technology characteristic of the current
older generation?

Despite Aging Issues...
• “Aren’t you talking about a problem that
will go away?”
• problems of current older generation
will not plague current Gen X and Y
when they become “old”

Purpose of this Talk
• Begin a discussion of technology expertise
as related to aging
• Question:
• Are technology difficulties an inescapable
fact of aging?

The Older User
• All have stories of older relatives and
technology problem
• Confound of expertise and age
• Tech-savvy generation believes this will
not characterize their generation
• Does not take into account
• Current trends in technology adoption
• Improvements in design (anticipated)

Age
• At what age does a person
become “older”
• No general agreement
• 60? 65? 50? 40?
• Studies report age, but reviews blur
this - “older” or “elderly” as a group

Current Divide, but Changing?
45%
% Online
Based on Jones & Fox, 2009

Why?
• Lack of access
• Lack of experience
• Lack of ability
• Lack of interest
• Cohort effect
• Retirement

Why? Lack of Access
• Can be expensive
• Particularly if you aren’t sure what you will
use it for
• “Hand-me-ups”
• Libraries
• Centers for older adults
• Levels of access (Selwyn et al, 2003)

Why? Lack of Experience
• Fear
• Fear of buying computers
• Fear of breaking computers
• If it breaks, who will help?
• Fear generated by computers when using
• “You have performed an illegal operation”
• Fear of trying something new
• Hard to learn new things
• Blame themselves when something doesn’t work
• Hard to understand computer terms and concepts

Why? Lack of Trust
• Lack of trust is at many levels
• Stories on the news
• identity theft
• online banking and shopping
• Trust people, not machines
• Like the personal touch

Why? Lack of Interest
• Most often cited reason for non-use
• Many, though, just want to be “current”
• What can it do that is useful?
• Life has been fine without computers
• Often want more ‘personal’ contact
• Loneliness
• May be that not everyone needs them
• Mismatch with needs in interests as
demonstrated by what is used...

Why? Retired
• Not interested in learning new things just
for the sake of keeping up

Why? Cohort Effect
• Abilities and interests influenced by our age
cohorts

Why? Lack of Ability
• Today’s older adults are better
educated, more diverse, healthier, and
more active than previous generations
• However...
• Age-related disability
• Most older adults have some declines
that affect ability to use computers

Age Related Changes - Cognition
• Perceptual, motor, cognitive
• Dynamic Diversity
• Fluid intelligence
• Affects ability to learn new things
• STM, speed of processing
• Allows people to think quickly and
reason abstractly
• Complexity of Web, Web 2.0

Age Related Changes -
Supporting Older Users
• Classes
• W3C Guidelines - WAI-AGE
• Browser modifications

Specialized Browsers
• Simplified interfaces
• Number of commercial and experimental
offerings
• Ideal for getting novices started
• Relatively short lives
• Lack of full Web functionality
• Difficult to get help
• Not wanting to be “different”

User Modification of Pages
• No single page rendering will be ideal for
everyone
• Browser features
• User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (W3C)
• Transcoding
• Browser augmentation

Unique Browsing
• Older Web users are not just deficient younger users
- they browse differently
• Looked at strategies for problem solving (not
comparing times, numbers)
• Age did not predict success
• Hypothesized reason: Solution required specialized
knowledge, experience, and vocabulary
• While fluid intelligence abilities decline with age,
crystallized intelligence abilities do not
Fairweather, 2008

Similarly ...
• Compared older and younger adults
• Well-defined vs ill-defined search tasks
• On ill-defined, older adults performed better than
younger adults
• Search behavior depended on task
• Spent more time processing, comprehending, and
deciding on ill-defined tasks
• Hypothesis again related to cognitive abilities
Chin, Fu, & Kannampallil, 2009

Original Question
• When today’s young adults become ‘older
adults’ will they exhibit difficulties with
technology that appear to characterize the
current older generation?

Reasons to Think So
• Age-related disability will not disappear
• As with the current generation, this will
continue to present problems of learning
new technologies
• Technology will not remain the same

Disability Ability and Changes
Age

Reasons to Think Not
• Future generations will have technology
skills not in the repertoire of current older
adults
• Trends towards remaining longer in the
workforce; new skills deteriorate with
retirement

Age and Experience
Experience
Age

Ability and Experience
Where is this intersection?
Crystallized intelligence?
Disability Experience
As technologies develop, there may
be a point (or points) where the next
generation can no longer use
Age

Questions?
vlh@acm.org