Senior Digital Accessibility Consultant Andrew Arch presented at the OZeWAI Conference in November 2018 on accessibility for an ageing population

1. Investing in your family’s future
Andrew Arch  @amja
andrew@intopia.digital
Senior Digital Accessibility Consultant
creating an inclusive digital world
intopia.digital  @Intopia

3. Some facts

4. Fact:
Australia’s
population is
ageing
Source: ABS 3222.0 - Population Projections, Australia, 2012 (base) to 2101
For a dynamic view see the ABS Population Pyramid
Year 65+
years
80+
years
2010 14% 1.8%
2020 16% 2.1%
2030 19% 2.4%
2040 21% 3.5%
2050 22% 4.4%

5. Fact:
Australia’s
population is
ageing
Source: ABS 3222.0 - Population Projections, Australia, 2012 (base) to 2101
For a dynamic view see the ABS Population Pyramid
Year 65+
years
80+
years
2010 14% 1.8%
2020 16% 2.1%
2030 19% 2.4%
2040 21% 3.5%
2050 22% 4.4%

6. Fact:
other countries
are ageing faster
Source: Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to 2100
https://www.populationpyramid.net/world/2016/

7. Fact:
other countries
are ageing faster
Source: Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to 2100
https://www.populationpyramid.net/world/2016/

8. Fact:
other countries
are ageing faster
Source: Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to 2100
https://www.populationpyramid.net/world/2016/

9. Fact:
other countries
are ageing faster
Source: Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to 2100
https://www.populationpyramid.net/world/2016/

10. Fact:
older people
increasingly
online
Source: ACMA - Digital lives of older Australians (Aug 2016 )

11. Fact:
older people do
similar things
online, just not as
frequently
Source: ACMA - Digital lives of older Australians (Aug 2016 )

12. Fact:
age brings
disability
Source: ABS 4430.0 - Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings, 2015

13. What are age-related disabilities?
How can we accommodate them?

14. Ageing and hearing loss
• Impact:
• Audio can be difficult to
discern
• Higher pitch sounds can be
missed
• Prevalence:
• 47% of people
61 to 80 years
• 93% of people
81+ years

15. Ageing and hearing loss
• Solutions
• Captions
• Audio contrast
Image: https://www.3playmedia.com/2016/08/09/new-zealand-parliament-tv-adds-closed-captioning/

16. Ageing and vision decline
• Impact:
• Decreasing ability to focus on
near tasks
• Changing colour perception
and sensitivity
• Decreasing contrast
sensitivity
• Prevalence:
(significant vision loss)
• 16% of people
65 - 74 years
• 19% of people
75 – 84 years
• 46% of people
85+ years

17. Ageing and vision
decline
• Solutions
• Larger text
• Higher contrast
• Off-white background
• Avoid florescent colours
• Underline links
• Reflow
Image: https://www.giaging.org/issues/vision/

18. Ageing and physical decline
• Impact:
(Motor skill decline can result from many
conditions including arthritis and Parkinson's
Disease)
• Difficulty using mouse
• Including hand-eye
coordination for some
• Difficulty clicking small
targets
• Strain from non-ergonomic
tasks
• Prevalence:
(Conditions most commonly reported)
• Arthritis
• At least 50% of people over 65
affected
• Essential tremor
• Affects up to 20% of people over 65
• Parkinson's Disease
• Approximately 4% of people over 85
affected

19. Ageing and physical
decline
• Solutions
• Target size
• Clickable labels
• Pointer gestures
• Pointer cancellation
• Visible focus
Image: Copyright Andrew Arch

20. Ageing and cognitive decline
• Impact:
Navigation, comprehension, and task
completion can be affected by:
• Short term memory problems
• Difficulty with concentration
• Distraction from movement
or irrelevant material
• Difficulty coping with
information overload
• Struggle adapting to change
• Prevalence:
(Conditions most commonly reported)
• Dementia:
• 1.4% of people 65-69 yrs
• 24% of people 85+ yrs
• Mild cognitive impairment
(MCI) is more common:
• Around 20% of people over 70
years are estimated to
experience MCI

21. Ageing and cognitive
decline
• Solutions
• Clear headings
• Error prevention
• Error identification
• Error suggestion
• On focus and change of content
• Pause, hide, stop for movement
and animations
Image: https://advancedwellness.com.au/cognition-ageing-brain-natural-
treatment-sunshine-coast/

22. Engage early – during design

23. Create User Stories
• Components
• User
• Outcome
• Value
• Writing
• As a user, I want outcome
• As a user, I want outcome so that value
• In order to get value as a user, I want outcome
Ref: How to Write User Stories for Web Accessibility

24. Example User Stories
• As an older person with poor hearing, I want captions on
videos so that I can understand the dialogue
• As an older person with cataracts (blue and green is harder
to see), I want links underlined so that I know where to click
to find the information I need
• As an older person with Parkinson’s disease, I want large
clickable elements so that I can navigate more easily
• As an older person with concentration issues, I don’t want
animations autoplaying so I can read the article I selected

25. Web accessibility matters
https://www.w3.org/WAI/older-users/

26. ‘Accessibility is
just the beginning. It is
usability that makes
the difference.’
Patti Moore
UX Australia keynote 2016

27. Look after your ageing family 
Image: https://www.haveyoursaygleneira.com.au/positive-ageing-strategy

28. Let’s continue the conversation
 Intopia
 amja
 andrew@intopia.digital
creating an inclusive digital world
intopia.digital