MU Researcher Helps Create ‘Senior-Friendly’ Interfaces

By Gardner, Dave

A comprehensive program at Misericordia University strives to help people with special needs become higher achievers, including the older members of society.

Known as the Assistive Technology Research Institute (ATRI), the effort specializes in the science of assistive technology (AT) – assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices and the process used in selecting, locating, and using them. AT promotes greater independence for people with disabilities by enabling them to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to or changed methods of interacting with the technology needed to accomplish such tasks.

One noteworthy segment at Misericordia’s ATRI involves research and development for tools that can be used by the elderly to operate a computer and navigate the Internet.

Denis Anson, the institute’s director of research and development, explains that the computer training project with elders is just one segment of Misericordia’s AT involvement.

“AT is the science that seeks to provide special-needs people with support for the skills they still possess after some event has occurred,” explains Anson. “The basic challenge is to figure out how to take a person’s thoughts and transform them into usable actions.”

ATRI was established at Misericordia University in 2004 with the assistance of a $190,000 grant from the federal government’s Administration on Aging.

“People can suffer from either natural or acquired disabilities,” says Anson. “With natural disabilities, we’re generally dealing with the effects of aging, and this involves cognitive limits from slower thinking. This is the result of physical changes that take place in an older person’s nervous system, and the resulting slower reaction times. Acquired disabilities usually result after an illness or specific event has occurred.”

Coping with change

Anson emphasizes that, from a technical standpoint, the natural effects of aging are not considered a disability by most people. However, societal change is occurring faster and faster, and this may deeply affect an older person’s ability to cope with the modern world and technology, amounting to a disability.

“With AT, we ask how technology can be used to influence a person’s basic living needs, and our project for the training of elders with computers is just one example,” says Anson. “Efficacy alsohas a big thrust, where we ask if the training we develop is doing what’s it’s supposed to.”

For those patients with acquired physical disabilities, such as a stroke, AT can involve methods of communication and coping while rehabilitation progresses. AT can involve applications such as the use of specialized tools to turn lights on and off Applications of AT in these forms may allow special needs patients to live at home and avoid residency in a nursing home.

Another AT application includes working with injured soldiers to help them recover basic life skills that have been compromised from battlefield actions.

Computerized elders

In view of northeastern Pennsylvania’s high population of senior citizens, ATRI’s work with computer training is particularly noteworthy. ATRI has spent the last year researching and developing an “Elder Interface” for computer users who have special needs.

ATRI is also participating in a new Microsoft campaign that is being launched in Miami. This program encourages the underserved population to use computers and participate in the electronic age through financial incentives, training and education exercises.

Miami’s seniors will be eligible to receive up to $200 in credit that can be applied to the overall cost of a new computer, plus a maximum of four training sessions. As part of a contract between Microsoft and ATRI, Anson will monitor and refine the training to ensure that it actually meets the elder’s needs.

Anson explains that an older person’s inability to operate a computer may create feelings of isolation. To counteract this, an effective senior-friendly computer will offer larger icons and fonts with other special features.

“I’m sure the training developers understand computers, says Anson. “I don’t know if they also understand elders. In many cases, trainers assume that if elders just practice a little more, they can use a computer like a younger person. When training older adults, you don’t teach all nine ways to perform a task. You teach the one way that always works”

The program is expected to be introduced in four or five major cities in the near future. According to Microsoft, after the training has been optimized, the company will conduct a national launch.

“It’s important to make the interface adaptations before an older person asks for help, Anson says. “If you wait for elders to say that the computer needs to change, they are more likely to say that they don’t want to use it.”

Copyright Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal Mar 2008

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