Accessibility - Related Projects

  • Cognitive Modeling of Computer Use By Older Adults
    Cognitive Modeling of Computer Use By Older Adults

    (SiDE Partnership Resource Project)

    A goal of SiDE is to improve the design of user interfaces for older people. A collaboration between SiDE, Carnegie Mellon University, and the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York, this project is using cognitive modelling to characterize the behaviour of computer users experiencing age‐related declines in vision, motor, and cognitive skills. Embedded in tools, the models will automatically point out accessibility and usability problems to designers and developers, who mostly lack knowledge of how older users work, and what their needs are. Our first experiments are investigating how older people differ from younger ones when looking for information on the Web. Differences in working memory capacity (the mental process by which information is temporarily stored in and manipulated during complex cognitive tasks), possible differences in search strategies between older and younger people, and the role of prior knowledge are all being explored. To gain insight into mental processes we are recording both what is clicked on and what is looked at prior to clicking by recording eye movements.

    Contact: Vicki Hanson (vlh@computing.dundee.ac.uk)

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  • TOPS - Technologies to Support Older People at Home
    TOPS - Technologies to Support Older People at Home

    (Collaborative projects with dot.rural - Aberdeen DE Hub)

    The project aims to determine the extent & nature of personal & social interaction between health & social care professionals & older adults with chronic pain in their homes; explore the impact of telecare and telehealth technologies on these personal & social interactions for older adults experiencing chronic pain and integrate our understanding of social and personal interactions into the design and application of technologies for management of chronic pain.

    Contacts: Vicki Hanson (( vlh@computing.dundee.ac.uk) / Patrick Olivier (p.l.olivier@ncl.ac.uk)

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