We present results of a survey (n=42) investigating how close others (family members, friends, or other community members) assist older adults with banking tasks in Canada. We asked what types of banking tasks they help with and what modalities they used. Our results show many close others help older adults by leveraging online banking, and this is especially true when the close other is an older adult themselves. We also found that close others who help older adults via online banking often know the online banking credentials for the older adults they assist, which presents privacy and security issues and could open the door to financial exploitation. Our results demonstrate the need for the design of online banking mechanisms that more explicitly acknowledge the nuanced and temporally changing role of close others in helping older adults with banking.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3491102.3501845
AAC research has traditionally focused on input speed, leaving higher-level communication goals such as relational maintenance under-explored. Through semi-structured interviews with AAC users with motor and speech impairments and their primary family caregivers, we offer a nuanced understanding of AAC’s roles in maintaining close relationships. Our inductive analysis reveals emerging themes including how AAC users and their partners share the physical and mental workload to overcome communication barriers in complex situations. Our deductive application of the Relational Maintenance Strategies framework exposes the efforts made and the challenges encountered in managing social engagements, providing mutual support, and decoding implicit expressions. From these insights, we propose novel research directions for better supporting maintenance strategies and social purposes of communication, including notably mediating relational tensions, leveraging empowerment and identity, and supporting interactions for social closeness and etiquette, which we hope will motivate discussion in HCI communities on expanding AAC research space.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3491102.3502011
Methods are fundamental to doing research and can directly impact who is included in scientific advances. Given accessibility research’s increasing popularity and pervasive barriers to conducting and participating in research experienced by people with disabilities, it is critical to ask how methods are made accessible. Yet papers rarely describe their methods in detail. This paper reports on 17 interviews with accessibility experts about how they include both facilitators and participants with disabilities in popular user research methods. Our findings offer strategies for anticipating access needs while remaining flexible and responsive to unexpected access barriers. We emphasize the importance of considering accessibility at all stages of the research process, and contextualize access work in recent disability and accessibility literature. We explore how technology or processes could reflect a norm of accessibility. Finally, we discuss how various needs intersect and conflict and offer a practical structure for planning accessible research.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3491102.3501882
Black older adults from lower socioeconomic environments are often neglected in health technology interventions. Voice assistants have a potential to make healthcare more accessible to older adults, yet, little is known about their experiences with this type of health information seeking, especially Black older adults. Through a three-phase exploratory study, we explored health information seeking with 30 Black older adults in lower-income environments to understand how they ask health-related questions, and their perceptions of the Google Home being used for that purpose. Through our analysis, we identified the health information needs and common search topics, and discussed the communication breakdowns and types of repair performed. We contribute an understanding of cultural code-switching that has to be done by these older adults when interacting with voice assistants, and the importance of such phenomenon when designing for historically excluded groups.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3491102.3501995
Flying drones is an increasingly popular activity. However, it is challenging due to the required perceptual and motor skills for following and stabilizing the drone, especially for people with special needs. This paper describes CandyFly, an application supporting people with diverse sensory, cognitive and motor impairments to pilot drones. We observed an existing accessible piloting workshop and evaluated CandyFly during eight additional workshops over three and a half years using a research-through-design process and ability-based design methods. We identified users’ needs, formulated requirements and explored adaptive interactions such as using pressure-sensitive keys, adjusting controls to the pilots’ range of motion, or limiting the drone’s degrees of freedom to cope with a broad range of disabilities. Our results show that the pilots and their caregivers enjoyed flying and emphasized CandyFly’s ability to be tailored to specific needs. Our findings offer a framework for designing adaptable systems and can support the design of future assistive and recreational systems.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3491102.3517568