Comments
The growing population of baby boomers leads to serious challenges in the method of coping up with the challenges of ageing. Modern advancements in medicine have resulted in providing longevity but at the same time, there seems to be no evidence of an eternal fountain of youth as a panacea for ailments that comes along with ageing. The decline in cognitive abilities, challenges in physical abilities, the decline in motor skills, emotional loneliness, mental distress and social isolation are a few of the challenges facing the ageing population (Czaja et al., 2008). This demographic has been neglected over time in terms of understanding their needs and their adaptability to information systems and technology. This paper explores the challenges faced in integrating technology towards assistive care.
Reference Information
Baecker, R. M., Moffatt, K., & Massimi, M. (2012). Technologies for Aging Gracefully. Interactions, 32–36.
Summary
The paper starts off with the stark reality that “the world is ageing”. While longevity enhanced by modern medicine is a desirable aspect of life, with ageing comes the challenges of sensory, motor, cognitive and social isolation. The cognitive and physical challenges of older adults define the limitations and opportunities for them to participate in leisurely and recreational activities. Most usability studies have been conducted with younger adults, and a study of the limitations and abilities of older adults would help develop usability criteria for designing games for this demographic. Technology must enhance the lifestyle of older adults as a means to provide them with freedom, mobility and interdependence on one another in a social group. There should not be any discrimination in the use and experience of devices and technology for older adults and persons with disabilities. The concept of a barrier-free living environment needs to be extended to the field of leisurely activities, personal entertainment and social interaction. The author formed Technologies for Aging Gracefully lab (TAGlab) in 2009 with the aim of enabling full participation in society by individuals with special needs i.e. people afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), amnesia, aphasia, strokes, multiple sclerosis (MS) or vision loss. In the hierarchy of human needs as defined by Maslow, TAGlab focused its attention on the top three needs i.e. the love or social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs.
Discussion
The authors framed the relevance of technology in relation to the improvement of the lives of senior citizens using Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. The following table indicates the work done by the authors and others in the realm of assistive technologies for the enhancement of the lifestyle of older adults.
| Needs | Technological work done | Current and Future Potential |
| Physiological needs | Health information websites; health-support social media
|
Pros: Using the web to access information about health, sharing their experiences for the benefit of others. Enables senior citizens to be more knowledgeable and informed about healthy lifestyles.
Cons: Relevance of the data with personal health conditions, improper understanding of data, and, challenges of interpreting the information wrongly posing a huge problem for doctors and health-care workers. |
| Safety needs | Use of signalling devices to indicate the event of an older person falling and unable to get up.
Use of AI systems to automatically determine if a person has fallen. (FOV and wide-angle lenses) Embedded assessment technologies to provide early detection /continuous monitoring of health conditions. (wristwatch detecting changes in cognitive function) |
Pros: Life-saving devices
Cons: People may forget to carry these devices on their person.
|
| Love needs | Grandparents and children chat via Skype (intergenerational interactions)
Technology bridging gaps across physical and social distance. TAGlabs projects: strengthening the interaction bonds between community family and friends TableTalk Poker: Connecting peers – social fulfillment. Families in Touch: a digital communication picture frame and web-portal: helping individuals in isolation due to pain, hospitalization and immobility. BeSupp: Bereavement support. Establishing meaningful connections across generations: Design opportunities linking grandparents and grandchildren. Family history connections as inspirations for connecting between intergenerational populations. |
Pros: Engaging inter-generational conversations leading to happiness, and a feeling of belongingness
Overcoming loneliness, social connections, connecting family and friends. Cons: maintaining topics of common interest is a challenge Collaborating on projects can be challenging due to a lack of common interest topics.
|
| Esteem Needs
|
Empowering autonomy: maintaining the need for independence despite age-related changes: cognitive decline, physical and motor disabilities.
Friend Forecaster: helping people remember names of people using one social media databases MyVoice: enabling people with anomic aphasia to get help with words and phrases based on location triggers. This could also be used by children with communication difficulties. ALLT: talking e-book, designed for people with impaired vision. TANGRA: controlled trials over the internet to determine the effectiveness of brain-fitness games and exercises. |
Pros: Enabling Independence, and providing aids to help overcome challenges of cognitive decline
Enabling memory triggers Cons: these technologies may need training and methods to remember steps for the usage of the product. |
| Self Actualization Needs
|
Using digital media: Projects to reminisce and reflect on past and present experiences to maintain one’s identity
Multimedia biographies (lifelogging) for AD and MCI to trigger episodic memory in individuals. |
Pros: Inspirations from past experiences helps with the purpose of a “calling”
Enables psychosocial benefits Cons: The ability to use these technologies itself could be a challenge. The need for monitoring the individuals using the technologies could also be a challenge. |
The paper is well structured and the authors categorize the above technologies into a taxonomic research framework based on Maslow’s needs hierarchy. They argue that the goals of the technologies mentioned could be diagnostic, assistive, rehabilitative or health-preserving.
While the technologies mentioned above focuses on the work of TAGlabs in the field of ageing gracefully, the authors have only given a few references about the use of similar technologies by many other researchers. It would have been helpful to have the work done by many researchers outside of TAGlabs detailed under this taxonomic research framework. This could have given us an idea about the direction in which researchers’ were focusing their attention to i.e. diagnostic, assistive, rehabilitative or health-preserving
Conclusion
Ageing is a reality of life, aging brings with it the challenges related to ageing. Technology may not be the panacea for age-related issues; however, the application of technology in enhancing the lifestyle of senior citizens is a tremendous possibility. Enhancing the lifestyle of older adults also means providing them with the opportunity to be self-reliant, increased feeling of self-worth and identity. It is critical for human interaction designers to work across multi-disciplinary and cross-functional disciplines to develop technology that could be applied towards creating systems enhancing older adults’ lifestyles.
Additional References
- J. Czaja and C. C. Lee. Information Technology and Older Adults. In The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook, A.Sears and J. A. Jacko, Eds. New York, New York, USA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2008.
Ijsselsteijn, W., Nap, H. H., de Kort, Y., & Poels, K. (2007). Digital game design for elderly users. Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Future Play – Future Play ’07, 17.