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An exploratory investigation of handheld computer interaction for older adults with visual impairments

Published: 09 October 2005 Publication History

Abstract

This study explores factors affecting handheld computer interaction for older adults with Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). This is largely uncharted territory, as empirical investigations of human-computer interaction (HCI) concerning users with visual dysfunction and/or older adults have focused primarily on desktop computers. For this study, participants with AMD and visually-healthy controls used a handheld computer to search, select and manipulate familiar playing card icons under varied icon set sizes, inter-icon spacing and auditory feedback conditions. While all participants demonstrated a high rate of task completion, linear regression revealed several relationships between task efficiency and the interface, user characteristics and ocular factors. Two ocular measures, severity of AMD and contrast sensitivity, were found to be highly predictive of efficiency. The outcomes of this work reveal that users with visual impairments can effectively interact with GUIs on small displays in the presence of low-cost, easily implemented design interventions. This study presents a rich data set and is intended to inspire future work exploring the interactions of individuals with visual impairments with non-traditional information technology platforms, such as handheld computers.

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  • (2021)An exploratory study of web adaptation techniques for people with low visionUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-020-00727-620:2(223-237)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2021
  • (2018)How to Help Older Adults Learn Smartphone Applications? A Case Study of Instructional Design for Video TrainingProceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018)10.1007/978-3-319-96065-4_16(123-136)Online publication date: 5-Aug-2018
  • (2017)Visual Impairments and Mobile Touchscreen Interaction: State-of-the-Art, Causes of Visual Impairment, and Design GuidelinesInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2017.127982733:6(486-509)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2017
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cover image ACM Conferences
Assets '05: Proceedings of the 7th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility
October 2005
232 pages
ISBN:1595931597
DOI:10.1145/1090785
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 09 October 2005

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Author Tags

  1. auditory feedback
  2. dpacing
  3. drag and drop
  4. icons
  5. macular degeneration
  6. mobile computing
  7. older adults
  8. visual impairment

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Cited By

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  • (2021)An exploratory study of web adaptation techniques for people with low visionUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-020-00727-620:2(223-237)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2021
  • (2018)How to Help Older Adults Learn Smartphone Applications? A Case Study of Instructional Design for Video TrainingProceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018)10.1007/978-3-319-96065-4_16(123-136)Online publication date: 5-Aug-2018
  • (2017)Visual Impairments and Mobile Touchscreen Interaction: State-of-the-Art, Causes of Visual Impairment, and Design GuidelinesInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2017.127982733:6(486-509)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2017
  • (2017)Technology learning and use among older adults with late-life vision impairmentsUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-016-0500-116:3(699-711)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2017
  • (2017)Usability of Mobile Consumer Applications for Individuals Aging with Multiple SclerosisUniversal Access in Human–Computer Interaction. Design and Development Approaches and Methods10.1007/978-3-319-58706-6_21(258-276)Online publication date: 16-May-2017
  • (2016)The Purdue Pegboard test: normative data for older adults with low visionDisability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology10.3109/17483107.2015.112945912:3(272-279)Online publication date: 8-Jan-2016
  • (2016)The Effect of Dyadic Interactions on Learning Rotate Gesture for Technology-Naïve Older AdultsProceedings of the International Symposium on Interactive Technology and Ageing Populations10.1145/2996267.2996277(99-108)Online publication date: 20-Oct-2016
  • (2016)A longitudinal evaluation of the acceptability and impact of a diet diary app for older adults with age-related macular degenerationProceedings of the 18th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services10.1145/2935334.2935356(124-134)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2016
  • (2016)Differences in Perceived Impact of Person-Centered Technology on Older Adults' Quality of LifeProceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/2851581.2892540(2200-2208)Online publication date: 7-May-2016
  • (2015)The accessibility and usage of smartphones by Arab-speaking visually impaired peopleInternational Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications10.1108/IJPCC-09-2015-003311:4(418-435)Online publication date: 2-Nov-2015
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