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WAI-AGE Literature Review and Analysis:
Observations and Conclusions
[Editor's DRAFT - 21 August 2008]

Status: This document is an early draft. Please send comments to public-comments-wai-age@w3.org (a publicly archived list).

Introduction

The WAI-AGE Literature Review is intended to provide a needs compilation and comparison for older users with regard to Web accessibility. This has occurred via reviewing and comparing differences and similarities between the technical and outreach needs of people with accessibility needs due to ageing, and the technical and outreach needs of people with disabilities. The literature review has collected and commented on a wide range of literature that addressed the requirements of older Web users. The literature considered included:

discussion of the functional and sensory limitations often experienced as part of the ageing process
collections of broad recommendation for making Web sites more accommodating for older users
studies focused on particular limitations experienced by older users
studies looking at specific design aspects of Web sites or specific types of sites

A review of these reports has compiled a wide range of requirements for older Web users and a comparative analysis of these against WAI guidelines has been undertaken.

Observations

The volume of literature relating to the use of the Web by older users was significant - over 150 scientific and professional articles were collected for the literature review. While most of the broad recommendations covering the needs of older users on the Web came from the US, a majority of the scientific literature seemed to originate from Europe. From all the articles reviewed, some general observations can be made about the requirements of older Web users:

Information overload was one of the most common issues identified for older users, taking a variety of forms:
- too much material on the page
- advertisements and movement distracting the users form their goals
- hypertext navigation providing non-linear paths through the information
- changing layouts, navigation structures and interaction between sites
Less technical and more experiential requirements for older users were generally suggested:

Content and presentation related aspects of the Web received the broadest emphasis from the authors identified
Navigation issues received lots of emphasis from many authors
Assistive technologies or adaptive strategies that might help accommodate impairments were seldom mentioned

Hearing loss and deafness were not covered by guidelines that covered the needs of older users on the Web, nor by any of the identified research into age-related Web use, although they are clearly identified as a sensory loss associated with ageing
Good usability aspects emerged in the needs - many needs are general benefits (like curb-cuts for wheel chairs)
- e.g. repeat search query with results and make results visible (near the top) in the results pages
Web inexperience is currently an influencing factor in many studies and receives a lot of discussion
- When inexperience is combined with impairments the combination can be overwhelming for some users
- Inexperience will disappear as a major factor over time with more older people gaining access to the Web and hence building experience combined with the fact that many of the younger older users have been using the Web previously. However, new Web applications and uses may create a new form of inexperience as the Web continues to evolve.
WAI Guidelines cover the majority of requirements recommended for Web pages to meet the needs of older users with age-related impairments
- WCAG 1.0 mirrored many requirements, but there were additional recommendations
- WCAG 2.0 covers the majority of all the requirements
- UAAG 1.0 covers some of the requirements, especially in combination with WCAG
- ATAG hardly provided any additional coverage as it largely reflects a requirement for WCAG conformance. Additionally, the requirements for older users hardly mention the actual development of Web sites.

ATAG is however vital to the development of accessible Web sites, which has a significant impact on older users Web experience.

An apparent lack of knowledge or acknowledgement of WAI was exhibited in most guidelines and much research

Not only a lack of knowledge/acknowledgment of WAI, but a strong tendency to reinvent the wheel which much seeming ignorance of other work in the field

Anomalies exist and are perpetuated between some recommendations and Web best practice
- e.g. 12pt text size vs relative size, possibly reflecting associations with the print world, or a lack or awareness of Web technologies and WAI guidelines by some authors
Differences in gender were not noted as impacting the requirements of older users, however some counties statistics organisations do indicate a gender difference in the online population of older people
Socioeconomic impact and/or a rural-urban connectivity differences were reflected in some recommendations (e.g. beware of large downloads) according to anecdotal evidence
Diverging opinions/studies exist on some issues such as the depth vs. breadth of site architecture - not all requirements were well agreed upon

Gap analysis

The comparative analysis of the requirements recommended from the literature for creating Web sites that would be more suitable for older users showed the comprehensiveness of the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines and its supporting techniques. The UAAG and ATAG guidelines also provided support for the needs of older Web users. Some gaps were found between the collected requirements of older web users and the coverage of the WAI Guidelines:

Download speed consideration - several authors recommended short pages due to slow connectivity experienced by many older users resulting from slower computers (may be hand-downs from their children) or slower connectivity (often dial up)
Search results presentation (repeating query with the search results; ensuring that results are visible within an average view port without scrolling)
Static menus recommended, rather than fly-out / pull-down, due to the dexterity required to manipulate many forms of dynamic menu systems
Text decoration should be avoided (including the use of bold text and underlined text), as extra decoration is considered to add to reading and comprehension difficulties. These decorations are also used conventionally for other purposes - emphasis and link indication. WCAG 2.0 does cover some aspects of text decoration.
Pop up windows should display the entire message. Many authors identified pop-up windows as confusing for many older users for a variety of reasons, and some suggested that, if they are used, then the entire message should be displayed so that the user doesn't have to deal with navigation as well as reading.
Navigation assistance with previous/next links - this may be appropriate within sections of a site that are best read in a liner fashion, such as a report, but largely defeat the purpose of hypertext with it's multiple paths otherwise
Do not require 'double clicks' - this recommendation would appear to have come from some analyses of older users with non-Web applications, and has been perpetuated through several sets of recommendations.
Fluorescent colours should be avoided - these can be difficult for age-impaired eyes to focus on
Small page changes must be made obvious to accommodate 'change blindness' in older users. This is an issue for many people with vision impairments and vision loss, though WAI ARIA's "live regions" will help address the problem through notification mechanisms

Conclusions

Many authors made recommendations about what is required to improve Web sites for older users although not all functional and sensory limitations associated with ageing have been considered. The recommendations have been identified and analysed in a comparative analysis against the WAI Guidelines discussed in the previous section. However, taking a bigger picture view across all the literature, some additional broader steps that will help promote accessibility for older users have also been identified:

Older users and their trainers and supporters need more information about how to adapt the user agent, or even the operating system, to accommodate the impairments they may be experiencing. An introduction to suitable assistive technologies would also be appropriate.
Due to the lack of awareness of older users' requirements in the development community, describing the inclusive nature of WCAG 2.0 and how it can help make sites more usable for older users, as well as meeting the needs of a broader range of people with disabilities, is needed. Providing guidance about including older users in the evaluation process would also be beneficial.
Many of the identified requirements were non-technical and would be considered by some people as usability requirements even though most of them are addressed by the WAI guidelines. A discussion of the overlaps and similarities between accessibility and usability may draw a broader community into adoption of the WAI guidelines.The importance of enabling older users to participate in the online world through communication, service delivery, e-commerce, e-learning etc is recognised by some groups, including the European Commission, but is not reflected in most Web sites. Additional business arguments for the adoption of WAI guidelines, combined with international standardisation, would assist in addressing the 'why' picture

Additional investigation is also considered to be needed in some areas such as:

The experiences and requirements of people with disabilities as they become older users and acquire additional impairments
The interaction of navigation structures and site hierarchies on older users comprehension of a site, in particular investigating the question of should site architecture be broad and provide many options, or be deep and offer only a few clear options
The ability of older users with age-related impairments to utilise social networking sites to supplement their traditional communication networks; additional requirements may emerge from this most recent Web application area

We live in a rapidly changing world:

Many older people are now online, and increasingly coming online.
Age-related impairments and sensory loss are well documented and are likely to increase in frequency and severity as we push the bounds of longevity.
Employment of older workers will have to increase as result of current demographic trends.
Independent living is being encouraged by Governments who see health and care costs rising.

Improved accessibility of public and private Web sites is one means of addressing many of the requirements being identified as necessary for our changing community. The literature review, needs identification, gap analysis of WAI guidelines, and our proposed steps to move accessibility forward, will all help address the initial premise of this project that older Web users and people with disabilities have very similar requirements, but that this is not recognised by either the elderly community and their representatives nor by the Web development community.