Jenny Darzentas

Older People’s Use of Tablets and Smartphones: A Review of Research

This paper presents a review of a decade of research (2005–2015) on the use of tablets and smartphones by older people, with a particular emphasis on research from the human computer interaction and human factors perspectives. The review groups the research according to views of older people about using tablets and smartphones, interaction devices and techniques, text and number entry, legibility and display considerations, and navigation.

Designing for Accessibility

Involving a wide variety of end users and in particular those with a disability or who are older when designing web pages and apps requires a good understanding of how to involve those end users, assistive technology, and evaluation methods. This course will introduce the basics of assistive technologies built into using mobile phones and describe major barriers in web pages, and how to analyze them with end users. It will also outline a range of appropriate tools to use in this work.

Accessibility and Usability of Self-service Terminals, Technologies and Systems

This short paper introduces the seven papers a special thematic session dedicated to discussing accessibility and usability issues of self-service terminals technologies and systems. The authors are from a mix of academic and industry backgrounds, thus bringing together a range of stakeholder perspectives. The papers include experimental investigations; user testing and feedback from real world deployments; novel interface and interaction concepts; and critical appraisals of standards and legislation as mechanisms for ensuring accessibility. To give some context to the focus on SSTs, particularly when some are being replaced by combinations of mobile app on smartphones, this introduction presents a brief account of current and past interest in the accessibility and usability of SSTs in Europe, as evidenced by the upcoming European Accessibility Act.

Standards, Guidelines and Legislation Related to Self-service Technologies: Developments Since 2013

The intention of the standards, guidelines and legislation discussed here, along with other initiatives mentioned, is to ensure accessibility for all is built into self-service technologies from the outset. This paper presents developments in relevant standards, guidelines and legislation since 2013. In reporting on this work, the intention to give an idea of its scope, but also to place these standards, guidelines and legislation within a critical framing that reviews both the material and its impact on efforts to make SSTs accessible to all users.

Intelligent Support Technologies for Older People: An Analysis of Characteristics and Roles

For almost two decades, there have been many developments in using intelligent technologies to support older people, with many different terms proposed to describe these technologies including assistive robots, embodied conversational agents and relational agents. Many technologies have been proposed in many different configurations and many assistance roles have been explored. Characteristics of these technologies include tangible or virtual; anthropomorphic, biomorphic, creature or object-like; level of visual realism; paralinguistic abilities; interactivity; adaptability; movement and positioning. The assistive roles proposed include providing information, advice and reminders, helping with physical tasks, monitoring, providing companionship and emotional support. This paper provides an overview of the characteristics and roles of these technologies and attempts to clarify some of the terminology used. It aims to provide a guide for researchers from the wide range of disciplines working on such technologies for supporting older people.

Older people and robotic technologies in the home: perspectives from recent research literature

This paper presents a review of research on robotic interventions for older people living at home. More specifically, it reviews results from the recent literature, from the point of view of the tasks that robots are being designed to carry out; the needs and values of older people with regard to robotic interventions; methods of working with older people; barriers to robot acceptance and ways of overcoming these barriers. This review will be useful to the robot research community for deepening understanding of the many interrelated issues involved in assistive robots for older people. In addition, it can be helpful for multidisciplinary design teams to encourage knowledge sharing across disciplines and building upon research results.