EAGER: Understanding Online Communication for Older Adults with Late-Life Vision Loss

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

The emergence and rapid evolution of social computing presents major research challenges for many disciplines, particularly human-computer interaction. At the same time, the prevalence of vision impairment and blindness, which increase rapidly after age 75, can significantly impact the ability of older adults to use computer technology. The PI argues that without investment in new techniques for late-life social connectivity, as a society we will be dangerously unprepared to support aging populations online so that these individuals are better positioned to prolong their independent life style and less likely to feel lonely or depressed. The PI's goal in this research is to address these concerns by exploring a novel approach to enriching the lives of seniors with vision loss, by providing methods based on "pre-computer" technology for staying socially connected online. To this end, the PI has developed a prototype voice-based e-mail system that can be accessed by means of traditional telephones and that leverages the familiarity and pervasiveness of these devices while enabling dynamic online interaction with one's social network, but which remains untested with this demographic. By assessing the potential for this approach, project findings will reveal gaps in and new directions for accessibility research, and will bring new knowledge and new tools to the forefront of this field, while also contributing to interdisciplinary scholarship across computer science, communication studies, and gerontology. The PI's approach represents a novel way of enabling and studying online social interaction, making it possible to examine phenomena of online behavior with entirely new demographics. The work will contribute new knowledge on the feasibility of deploying a voice-based online messaging system with older adults in a naturalistic context, while identifying communication strategies used and challenges faced by older adults with late-life vision loss and providing an initial understanding of the potential for phone-based voice interfaces to support interaction for this target community. The PI's V-Mail prototype voice-based e-mail system for traditional phones integrates with existing e-mail accounts which users configure to forward messages from specified contacts to the V-Mail server. For example, a family member or friend sends an e-mail to a V-Mail user by sending the message to a traditional e-mail account (e.g., Gmail), which forwards it to the V-Mail server that manages the recipient's list of contacts, read and unread e-mail messages, and attachments in a MySQL database that uses Python to interact with Twilio when an older adult calls the system. The PI will establish initial feasibility by testing and refining system functionality with sighted older adults. She will then use in-depth interviews to identify strategies and adaptive techniques that older adults with late-life vision loss use to maintain communication, and she will evaluate the usability and appeal of the developed voice-based communication system for this target community.