Notes

[NOTES SECTION This is where the important information is: for each slide.]

This material is also available in presentation format at [http://www.w3.org/WAI/@@]

Permission and Reference

If you plan to use this material for a presentation, please let us know by sending an email to wai-eo-editors@w3.org (a publicly-archived list), or if you do not want it public send it to wai@w3.org. Following your presentation, we would appreciate knowing how many people attended, what questions they had, and how it was received. We also welcome your feedback and suggestions for the presentation.

The "Web Accessibility for Older Users" presentation material is copyright© W3C and licensed under the W3C Document License. Additionally, you are granted permission to create modifications or derivatives of the material.

All that means that you can copy, change, translate, distribute, and present the "Web Accessibility for Older Users" presentation material as long as you include the reference information below as source material:

Web Accessibility for Older Users Presentation, A.M.J. Arch, ed. W3C (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), May 2009. www.w3.org/WAI/@@

Note to presenters:

• Some people may not be able to see the slides, for example, people who are blind or people listening to an audio-only recording of the presentation. Make sure that you say all of the information that is on each slide.
• Speak slowly and clearly - some participants may not be fluent in your spoken language; some may have difficulty with your accent; some may be relying on a sign-language interpreter.
• An Appendix contains additional slides with demographics that might be more relevant to your audience than the ones currently included. If appropriate, substitute material from the Appendix for some of the existing demographic material.

Notes

Today I'll be talking about Web accessibility and older people, based on findings provided by the W3C WAI-AGE Project.

The presentation will introduce WAI-AGE, talk about the changing world wide demographic situation and the prevalence of age-related functional limitations, introduce some of the findings from a literature review, highlight some of the requirements of older users, and talk about the current activities of the project.

Notes

The Web Accessibility Initiative: Ageing Education and Harmonisation (WAI-AGE) project is funded as a European Commission IST Specific Support Action with the goal of increasing accessibility of the Web for older people as well as for people with disabilities in European Union Member States.

The WAI-AGE project is specifically intended to:

• develop a better understanding of the needs of older people using the Web and how existing Web accessibility guidelines meet those needs
• encourage participation of older people and organizations representing older people in W3C standardization and development
• revise existing WAI educational materials and develop new materials to better reflect the needs of older users, and to support industry and users
• pursue standards coordination to promote adoption and implementation of a common set of accessibility guidelines for people with disabilities and older users

More information is available from the WAI-AGE project page

@@ introduce W3C and WAI - separate slide before/after this one, or just links here??

Let's first look at the motivations behind this project: changing demographics and age-related impairments

Notes

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international vendor-neutral consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C's mission is:

• To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web

Within the W3C, the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) pursues accessibility of the Web through five primary activities:

• ensuring that core technologies of the Web support accessibility
• developing guidelines for Web content, user agents, and authoring tools
• facilitating development of evaluation and repair tools for accessibility
• conducting education and outreach
• coordinating with research and development that can affect future accessibility of the Web.

Note to presenters:

• More information about the W3C
  
• More information about WAI

Notes

The United Nations has forecast that "Globally, the number of persons aged 60 years or over is expected nearly to triple, increasing from 673 million in 2005 to 2 billion by 2050" while at the same time, the total population is only forecast to increase by 40%. They also state that "Today, about half of the oldest-old [those over 80 years] live in developing countries but that share is expected to reach 71 per cent in 2050". @@ At the same time, they expect the working-age population to decline by 5%.

"In the more developed regions, 20 per cent of the population is already aged 60 years or over and that proportion is projected to reach 33 per cent in 2050." and "Population ageing is less advanced in developing countries. ... In developing countries as a whole, just 8 per cent of the population is today aged 60 years or over but by 2050, 20 per cent of their population is expected to be in that age range."

UN References:

• UN World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision (Highlights) [PDF]
• UN World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision (Population Ageing) [PDF]

Note to presenters:
The following two slides provide some European statistics on the demographic changes. Several slides are provided in the Appendix with specific country demographic forecasts for you to select from - you will probably just select one or two.

The point to emphasize is that the population is getting older.

Notes

In the European Union, the EU-27 group of countries are predicted to to have nearly 30% of their population over 65 years by 2050, up from 17% in 2010 to 20% in 2020, 24% in 2030, and 27% in 2040. The proportion over 50 is forecast to increase from 36% in 2010 to 47% in 2050 and the proportion of older-old (those over 80) will also increase - from 5% in 2010 to 12% in 2050.

@@ Many countries will experience different changes from this - some are forecast to have greater proportions of older people, others to have lower proportions of their populations over 65 years. For example Ireland is forecast to grow from 11% in 2010 to just 24% in 2050, while Italy is forecast to grow from 23% in 2010 to 33% in 2050. Japan is expected to have 34% of its population over 65 years by 2035!

These forecast changes over the next few decades highlights the significance of this older group and emphasizes the need to:

1. support older people in the workplace
   (note that many EU countries are currently raising the retirement age and people are also choosing to work longer)
2. support older people in the community
   (providing an increased ability for people to age in place)

An accessible Web contributes to this.

References:

• Eurostat Population and Social Conditions [PDF] for 65+ and 90+
• Eurostat - Statistics database - Population projections for 50+

Definition:

"EU-27" represents the 27 countries that comprised the EU as at 1 January 2007

Note to presenters:

Several slides are provided in the Appendix with specific country demographic forecasts for you to select from as alternatives to the following slide.

The EU average of people over 65 to those under 65 in 2010 will be 17%, forecast to rise to 20% in 2020 and 24% in 2030. Some individual countries within the EU vary considerably from the average.

References:

• Population and Social Conditions - [PDF]
• (see also the Eurostat Yearbook [PDF])

Definition:

• "EU-27" represents the 27 countries that comprised the EU as at 1 January 2007

Note to presenters:

• Keep the demographic slides to 3 or 4 as a maximum.
• Consider substituting a graph and data from the Appendix or creating one for your own country .
• You may like to show your own country instead of this European situation, or to contrast your own country with Europe or another country.

 

Notes

Functional decline often accompanies the ageing process - vision decline, hearing loss, physical decline, and cognitive decline.

Vision decline often starts in a person's mid-40s. It affects 16% of people 65 to 74 years, and 46% of those over 85 years. Vision decline includes:

• Decreasing ability to focus on near tasks, including a computer screen
• Changing color perception and sensitivity - less violet light is registered, making it easier to see red and yellows than blues and greens, and often making dark blue and black indistinguishable
• Pupil shrinkage - resulting in the need for more light
• Decreasing contrast sensitivity - an 80 year old typically has 80% less contrast sensitivity than a 20 year old

Hearing starts to decline at around 50 years, affecting 19% of people 61 to 80 years and 75% of people over 81 years.

The next slide ... motor skill decline & cognitive limitations

Note to presenters:

• Four slides about "Ageing and functional impairments" are provided - this one and the next show statistics, the following two show the impacts. Consider only selecting the statistics pair or the impacts pair depending on your audience. For example, an audience of managers might be more interested in statistics while an audience of developers might be more interested in the impact of the impairments on Web use.
• For a short presentation, you might want to remove the bulleted lists and speak very briefly to the main areas of vision, hearing, motor skills, and cognition.
  
• More detailed data is available from Web Accessibility for Older Users: A Literature Review

Notes

Motor skill decline includes arthritis, with joint stiffening, and Parkinson's Disease, with associated hand trembling, making mouse use difficult or impossible for some and also affecting keyboard use. Arthritis is estimated to affect at least 50% of people over 65 and Parkinson's affects around 4% of those over 85.

Cognitive decline is also common. While Dementia is experienced by some older people (1.4% of people 65-69 years increasing to 24% of people over 85 years), forms of mild cognitive impairment (or MCI) are much more common, affecting over 20% of those over 70 years. MCI can result in :

• short term memory issues (which may result in a person forgetting the purpose of a website visit if they lose orientation on the site)
• concentration and distraction issues (consider the volume of information on some pages, and the multiple animated advertisements that are sometimes present)

These statistics, and other information, show that ageing-related impairments can start to be experienced by 50 years of age (while most people are still employed) and also that there is a significant increase in the proportion of people who experience these impairments after around 80 years of age.

Notes

Functional decline often accompanies the ageing process - vision loss, hearing loss, motor skill diminishment, cognitive decline.

Vision decline - [read out slide bullets]
- often starts in a person's mid-40s.

Hearing decline - [read out slide bullets]
- often starts to decline at around 50 years

Next slide ... for motor skill decline & cognitive limitations

Note to presenters:

• Four slides about "Ageing and functional decline" are provided - this one and the next show the impacts, the previous two show statistics. Consider only selecting the statistics pair or the impacts pair depending on your audience. For example, an audience of managers might be more interested in statistics; an audience of developers might be more interested in the impairment impacts they need to accommodate.
• For a short presentation, you might want to remove the bulleted lists and speak very briefly to the main areas of vision, hearing, motor skills, and cognition.
• More detailed data is available from Web Accessibility for Older Users: A Literature Review

Notes

 

Motor skill decline - [read out slide bullets]
- arthritis (one impairment impacting motor skill) is estimated to affect at least 50% of people over 65.

Age-related cognitive decline - [read out slide bullets]

Ageing-related impairments commonly start to be experienced by 50 years of age (while most people are still employed). There is a significant increase in the proportion of people who experience these impairments after around 80 years of age.

Notes

The demographic forecasts and the age-related impairment statistics show an increasingly older population who are more likely to experience impairments.

Older people are increasingly engaging online.

Furthermore, the demographic changes are leading to working ages being extended, and with that goes lifelong learning and training.

What has WAI-AGE found about the Web accessibility needs of older people?

Web accessibility is an imperative

Notes

To better understand the needs of older users, the WAI-AGE project undertook an extensive literature review. This review included 150 resources including scientific papers and popular articles. The range of literature reviewed included those that ... [read out the bulleted list]

Notes

In reviewing the literature and analyzing the findings and recommendations, WAI-AGE found a large overlap between the identified needs of older users and the WAI recommendations. However, it was also observed that:

• many older people are still new to the Web, especially among the "older old", and have not had the opportunity to become familiar with computers and the Web. This inexperience is currently an influencing factor in many of the studies discussed in the literature review
• especially because declining memory and concentration are common among older people, information overload was a problem that many observers reported - many pages containing more information than some people could assimilate
• most of the articles considered the usability factors of a website; very few considered the technical, or coding, aspects that may also assist
• online forms were criticized heavily by some, and some suggested improvements such as grouping material and error reporting
• the work of W3C and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) was rarely mentioned and most studies did not draw on the experience of previous work relating to people with disabilities using the Web
• very few articles considered the use of adaptive strategies (such as changing browser color and text size) by older users

The implications of the analysis and observations are discussed in the following slides.

Definition:

"older old" are considered as the group of people over 80 years (or sometimes over 85)

Notes

WAI-AGE made some other observations from the literature:

• disability and impairment issues relating to older Web users were not well understood by industry and accessibility issues were not well understood by users themselves
• there was a strong tendency in much of the literature to "reinvent the wheel" and not build on previous work
• some recommendations reflected a lack of technical knowledge, for example
  • some recommendations suggested that it was not good to have users double-click (something that is unnecessary on the Web)
  • most of the literature ignored the possibility of adaptive strategies or the use of assistive technology
• although hearing decline is common among older people, very few studies looked at the implications of this impairment or discussed the use of captions with video
• assistive technology has the potential to help some older users, yet none of the studies investigated this aspect of Web accessibility

These additional observations have implications for ongoing work and also suggest some research needed to fill gaps in our understanding and knowledge.

Notes

Web accessibility depends on several components working together:

• The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) documents explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities
• The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) documents define how authoring tools should help Web developers produce Web content that is accessible and conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The ATAG documents also explain how to make authoring tools accessible so that people with disabilities can use the tools
• The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) documents explain how to make user agents (browsers and media players) accessible to people with disabilities, particularly to increase accessibility to Web content

The following slides describe some of the key findings in relation to the WAI guidelines ...

Reference:

• Essential Components of Web Accessibility

Definition:

• Web "content" generally refers to the information in a Web page or Web application, including text, images, forms, sounds, etc.
• "user agents" include browsers and media players
• "authoring tools" include content management systems (CMS), HTML editors, wikis, blogs, forums, social networking applications, and any other application that allows you to add content to the Web

Notes

WAI-AGE found that many of the suggested requirements for making websites accessible to people with disabilities match the requirements of older users:

• Text
  • Font choice can affect ease of reading - studies have shown a slight preference for a sans serif font onscreen
  • Size - many older people require larger font size, so an ability to increase the text size is essential
  • Contrast - providing a suitably high contrast for text and other important information
  • Color - not relying on color as an indicator of information such as which words are links or which form elements are required
• Links
  • Clearly distinguished from the regular text and identifying the link destination
• Headings
  • Clearly standing out from the text, and clearly identifying the sections to follow
• Orientation and navigation
  • To help users know where they are in a website and where they can go

WAI's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 addresses these requirements

See WAI Guidelines and Older Web Users: Findings from a Literature Review for details on how WCAG 2.0 covers the needs of older users.

Notes

Usability improvements that particularly help older Web users also help people with disabilities

• Layout - consistent layout across the site (and consistent with other sites) to aid recognition and familiarity
• Text presentation - most people prefer sans-serif with left justification (for left to right texts), increased line-spacing, use of proper case, and avoidance of italics, underlining, and other decoration
• Forms - grouping like questions, making required fields obvious, giving examples, and providing clear error messages and help
• Predictability and consistency - meeting users expectations about how a website is presented and behaves, consistent menus and links, and clearly indicating links.

These improvements benefit many other users too.

@@ WCAG 2.0 covers more of these requirements than WCAG 1.0 did.

Reference:

• WAI Guidelines and Older Web Users: Findings from a Literature Review has details of WCAG 2.0 coverage.

Browsers play the key role in accessing the Web - they are the entry point. However:

Notes

Many older people, and especially the older-old (over 85 years) are often new to computers and the Web - facing a steep learning curve. While this situation will decline as more older people come online and gain experience, it is still a contributing factor at present. Some studies of training older people in Web use found that a simplified browser interface aided learning and understanding, though some wanted a browser with additional features as their familiarity and experience grew.

The lack of studies discussing adaptive strategies like changing text size or color schemes suggests that browsers could make these accommodation more obvious and available to users. Trainers and supporters of older people online need more information about how to adapt the user agent, or even the operating system, to adjust the interface for the age-related impairments that may be being experienced. Some browsers do not even work with some assistive technologies, reducing users' choice.

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines can help make the learning process easier and Web interactions better.

More information on WAI guidelines:

• Essential Components of Web Accessibility
• User Agent Accessibility Guidelines

Notes

The Web is also about contributing as well receiving information - being an "author" as well as a "reader".

Many people who are still in the workforce experience age-related impairments . These people may be required to contribute to their employers website and intranet. Hence, the content management systems (CMS) and authoring tools used within an organization need to be accessible themselves and need to create content that is accessible.

User-generated content via wikis, blogs, etc is increasing. Older users are increasingly using online office-style applications, social networking, and photo sharing applications. Older people with impairments have many of the same problems as people with disabilities in accessing some of these newer Web developments because they are not developed to be accessible.

Older people are also involved in developing websites - either for professionally or for leisure.

More information on WAI guidelines:

• Essential Components of Web Accessibility
• Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines

Notes

As we have seen, WAI guidelines are necessary for an accessible Web for many older users as well as for people with disabilities. WAI-AGE will be revising existing resources and developing new educational resources to better explain how WAI guidelines address the needs of older users with age-related impairments. Much of the remainder of the project will concentrate on incorporating the requirements of older people into existing WAI documents and developing new documents to help promote the need for including older people as well as people with disabilities during the development of websites and web applications.

One of the issues identified is the duplication of work in this area and the potential for divergence. WAI-AGE has found that older people and people with disabilities have a lot of requirements in common and we need to encourage researchers, developers and the community to work more closely together for an accessible Web. We need to avoid potential fragmentation through reinvention of requirements.

Because many older people do not consider themselves to have disabilities, there is a need to raise awareness of Web accessibility issues, and also of adaptive strategies and assistive technologies that could make Web use easier. Organizations for older people also need to be encouraged to take an interest in Web accessibility and participate in the development of WAI guidelines and promote Web accessibility.

Notes

Informing businesses and developers on the accessibility needs of older users:

The web industry (both organizations with websites and applications, and web designers and developers) needs more information:

• about the benefits of developing accessibility websites to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of older people
• to understand the accessibility requirements of older users and the applicability of WAI guidelines to their needs.

Older people need to be included more in the Web design and development process.

@@ WAI-AGE is developing a range of materials to increase industry awareness and support industry implementation.

Note to presenters:
The planned work is discussed in WAI-AGE Deliverables

Notes

An increased awareness of Web accessibility is also required among older users themselves, people who are providing training and support, and the organizations that represent them. In particular there is a need to:

• Increase older users' awareness of the benefits of Web accessibility
• Provide guidance in taking advantage of Web accessibility through adaptive strategies and assistive technologies
• Help to identify and report Web accessibility problems
• Provide information on the findings of the WAI-AGE Project to assist the promotion of Web accessibility

@@ WAI-AGE is developing materials to support user awareness and facilitate the promotion of Web accessibility to older users and their communities.

Note to presenters:
The planned work is discussed in WAI-AGE Deliverables

Notes

Several existing WAI documents will benefit from having the needs of older users more explicitly addressed. These include:

• Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization is being expanded to incorporate more benefits related to older users
• the Before and After Demonstration (BAD) pages are being updated to incorporate more requirements of older users
• Involving Users in Web Accessibility Evaluation is being expanded to incorporate older users, and to address the incorporation of accessibility throughout the development process

New resources are planned to build on the WAI-AGE findings and the benefits of WCAG 2.0. These include:

• Improving your Web experience by using adaptive strategies will provide a general introduction to the use of adaptive strategies and assistive technologies with an emphasis on the needs of older users
• Contacting organizations with inaccessible websites - will give advice on contacting organizations which have inaccessible websites
• Overlapping relationship between Web accessibility and usability - will explore and explain this overlap and the importance of usability to people with disabilities and older users

Note to presenters:

The planned revisions and new work are all discussed in WAI-AGE Deliverables

Notes

@@ notes??

@@ define 'harmonization' and 'fragmentation'

Notes

WAI-AGE identified some gaps in our understanding of the requirements of older people using the Web including:

• Hearing loss and multimedia - how beneficial are captions and/or transcripts for older users who may also be experiencing minor memory loss and concentration difficulty
• Cognitive decline - impact of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), including short-term memory loss and distractibility, on website use
• Text decoration and fonts - what font weight and type is preferable? @@ Any other text decoration preferences or avoidances?
• Small page changes - are within-page updates noticed? How can they be made more obvious?
• Social networking - what improvements to these sites might be required to better accommodate older users?
• Awareness and use of assistive technology by older people, especially the impact of more intuitive interfaces on adoption

Note to presenters:

Depending on your audience, this slide may not be relevant.

 

Notes

Anyone interested in this topic is invited to:

• monitor WAI-AGE (new outputs will be announced on the WAI-AGE project page - www.w3.org/WAI/WAI-AGE)
• @@ join the WAI-AGE mailing list - http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wai-age/
• comment on documents while they are being developed
• participate in the WAI-AGE Task Force or one of the WAI Working Groups
• contribute relevant research findings to fill in some of the gaps in our understanding

See Participating in WAI for WAI participation details.

Note to presenters:

Please help us improve this presentation by giving us feedback on what worked and what might be improved - that can be one of your ways of contributing to the project. Consider asking the audience for feedback afterwards, too.

Notes

Note to presenters:
Before asking for questions, please mention that the WAI-AGE Project is a European Commission IST Specific Support Action funded by Sixth Framework Programme.

 

Notes

Note to presenters:

Usually you should keep the total demographics slides to 3 or 4 as a maximum. The main message is that population demographics are changing and the population is getting older (very quickly in some countries).

Forecasts for all EU countries are available from EUROPE IN FIGURES — Eurostat yearbook 2006-07 (Chapter 1 - Population) PDF
UN forecasts for most regions and countries are available from the UN's Population database
Local projections may be available from the national statistics organization or government department in your country

Notes

This slide shows the ageing trend in the UK ... the number of people over 50 years will rise from 35% in 2010 to 38% in 2020 and 39% in 2030, while the population over 65 years will rise from 17% in 2010 to 19% in 2020 to 22% in 2030 (and by 2030, the UK is forecast to have 53,000 people over 100 years!). At the same time the proportion of 'older old' (over 85 years) is expected to increase from 2.2% in 2010 to nearly 5% in 2030.

While the proportion over 50 years is not forecast to grow as rapidly as the proportion over 65 years, it does represent people still in the workforce who may be starting to experience some age-related impairments such as vision and hearing decline (for instance the proportion of people with hearing loss increases sharply at around age 50, and 10% of UK blind and partially sighted people are in the 50-64 age group [76% are over 65 years]).

Note to presenters:
Don't forget to read the numbers out for those who may have low vision

UK Office of National Statistics:

UK National Population Projections

and the spreadsheet - http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_population/NPP-2006/wuk065y.xls

Notes

Spain is forecast to experience similar ageing patterns to the EU average for the next decade, but will exceed the EU average by the 2050.

[read out the data]]

Source: EUROPE IN FIGURES — Eurostat yearbook 2006-07 (Chapter 1 - Population) PDF

Notes

Discuss the numbers and emphasize that Japan currently has 1 in 5 people over 65; within 20 years it will be 1 in 3
Japan's proportion of people over 65 years is the highest in the world, and the UN forecasts that the "population of Japan is projected to remain the oldest in the world with a median age of 55 years in 2050."

At the same time, Japan's total population is expected to decline from around 127m people at present to less than 90m people by 2050.

Source:

Reuters, undated - Japan's Aging Population

Reuters, 17 Sept 2007 - FACTBOX-The outlook for Japan's ageing population

UN - World Population Prospects: the 2006 Revision

Notes

US projects are ... [read out numbers]

The United States is forecast to experience lower ageing patterns compared with the EU. For example, the US is forecast to have 16% of its population over 65 year of age in 2020, while Europe forecasts 21%.

[read out the data]

Source: US Population Projections (released 2008) - see Table 3

Notes

Australian projections are ... [read out numbers]

Australia is forecast to experience lower ageing patterns compared with the EU average. For example, Australia is forecast to only have 19% of its population over 65 year of age in 2026, while Europe forecasts 36% in 2025.

Source: ABS Australian Population Projections (2006 TO 2101) - Catalogue # 3222.0