Older adults face unique challenges in adopting social technology, particularly through retirement. Whereas existing digital solutions are often disconnected from the motivations of older adults, ambient and tangible technologies (ATTs) are emerging as promising social tools that integrate into users' routines and leverage familiar physical interactions. This study investigates how older adults envision ATTs to meaningfully support their social connections. Through two phases of co-design with 25 retiring older adults (55+) and 5 social partners (25+), we explore the intersection of social health, life transitions, and technology use. Our thematic analysis reveals how shifting perceptions of time influence engagement, relationship maintenance, and legacy-building. We present opportunities to align ATT design with older adults’ emotional goals, social practices, and community connections by posing design challenges, such as collective legacy building, for supporting the meaningful relationships of retiring adults as they age.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3714302
Dyslexia is a common neurobiological learning disorder significantly impacting reading, writing, and spelling worldwide. Early identification and intervention are essential, but most pre-screening tools focus on Latin languages, leaving Chinese-speaking students underserved. To address this gap, we conduct semi-structured interviews with special education (special-ed) teachers to gather their needs for dyslexia pre-screening tailored to Chinese contexts. Us- ing their insights, we have developed DysVis, a user-centered data visualization system that combines handwriting analysis, body movement keypoint conversion, and a comprehensive visualization interface. DysVis provides teachers with multi-level visualizations, such as performance overviews, task analyses, handwriting observations, and behavioural insights, enabling them to identify the root causes of learning difficulties. Our evaluations, including case studies, a user study, and expert interviews, demonstrate that DysVis is user-friendly and effective in quickly identifying at-risk students, ultimately enhancing learning outcomes for Chinese-speaking students with dyslexia.
d/Deaf and hearing song-signers have become prevalent across video-sharing platforms, but translating songs into sign language remains cumbersome and inaccessible. Our formative study revealed the challenges song-signers face, including semantic, syntactic, expressive, and rhythmic considerations in translations. We present ELMI, an accessible song-signing tool that assists in translating lyrics into sign language. ELMI enables users to edit glosses line-by-line, with real-time synced lyric and music video snippets. Users can also chat with a large language model-driven AI to discuss meaning, glossing, emoting, and timing. Through an exploratory study with 13 song-signers, we examined how ELMI facilitates their workflows and how song-signers leverage and receive an LLM-driven chat for translation. Participants successfully adopted ELMI to song-signing, with active discussions throughout. They also reported improved confidence and independence in their translations, finding ELMI encouraging, constructive, and informative. We discuss research and design implications for accessible and culturally sensitive song-signing translation tools.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713973
Statistical literacy involves understanding, interpreting, and critically evaluating statistical information in a contextually grounded way. Current instructional practices rely heavily on visual techniques, which renders them inaccessible to students who are blind or have low vision (BLV). To bridge this gap, we formed an extended co-design partnership with a statistics teacher, a teacher for students with visual impairments (TVI), and two BLV students to develop accessibility-first practices for building statistical literacy. Through several months of collaboration that included discussion, exploration, design, and evaluation, we identified specific approaches to promote comprehension and engagement. The enactive approaches we designed, using scaffolding and timely feedback, fostered insights through pattern recognition and analogical reasoning. Additionally, inquiry-based methods promoted contextually situated reasoning and reflection on how statistics can improve students' lives and communities. We present these findings alongside participants’ experiences and discuss their implications for inclusive learning frameworks and tools.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713333
Social isolation is a common experience for LGBT+ older adults (OAs) that is often compounded by prejudices of age, sexuality, or gender identity. Little research has explored the specific social needs and barriers that LGBT+ OAs face, particularly in online spaces. To address this gap, we conducted interviews with 10 LGBT+ OAs and an inclusive housing service provider. Our research highlights the importance of LGBT+ community engagement and digitally-supported social networks' role for LGBT+ OAs. We identify challenges such as managing online identity, navigating LGBT+ social media apps and websites, as well as digital disconnectedness challenges among those with lower digital literacy. Recommendations include improving social platforms allowing LGBT+ OAs to manage selective identity characteristics, promoting genuineness and trust in LGBT+ platforms by employing tiered blocking and interest-driven connections, and non-digital outreach strategies for collaborations between LGBT+ organizations and senior centers to engage hidden and isolated LGBT+ OAs.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3714397
Technologies designed to support marginalized communities have often led to unintended harm. This frequently occurs when misaddressing or failing to understand communities' experiences, needs, and desires. User-centered research often focus on needs versus desires (leveraging deficit versus assets-based approaches), which have been contested in HCI. To promote technology design that better balances the tensions between needs and desires, we contribute participatory zine-making as an effective approach for speculatively designing trans augmented reality (AR) technologies. We facilitated in-person and virtual workshops with trans participants (n=44) focused on designing AR technologies, observing participants' zine-making processes and artifacts to gather visual ethnographic data alongside transcripts and facilitator field notes. In participants' zines we identified ambivalence as critical in addressing trans people's needs and desires, and participants conveyed this ambivalence through metaphor and anti-assimilationist aesthetics. Our participatory zine-making approach enabled us to uncover perspectives and design implications crucial to designing trans technologies.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713704