Professor Alan Newell, head of the applied computing department at the University of Dundee delivered the keynote address at the annual ASSETS conference on computers to help people with disabilities this morning (Monday 8 July) in Edinburgh.
ASSETS 2002 is a conference about computer-based systems designed to address the special needs of persons with disabilities. The conference's scope spans special needs associated with speech, motor, hearing, and vision impairments; cognitive limitations; emotional and learning disabilities; and aging. Researchers and developers, from both academia and industry, are invited to meet to exchange ideas and present reports on new hardware and/or software advances related to these areas.
Alan Newell: "Improved medical care, and an increasingly ageing population, are leading to significant increases in the numbers of disabled people. Unfortunately most computer systems are designed for young people and can be very difficult for older people to successfully use."
The lecture described work being done in The University of Dundee's Applied Computing Division to enable designers to take account of the needs and wants of older and disabled people. These include the novel concepts developed in Dundee of User Sensitive Inclusive Design, Design for Dynamic Diversity, and the use of narrative methods for influencing designers.
Prof Newell explained that if such methods are adopted, industry will be better able to provide appropriate technological support for older people and people with disabilities in the future.